The post PROJECT: Compact Table and Benches appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

The post PROJECT: Bedside Cabinet appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

My answer is to begin with a simple piece of work which you will carry out of the shop that embodies an essential technique. The second simple piece introduces a second essential technique, but it includes what was learned in the first piece. The third introduces another technique, but includes what was learned in making one and two…and so it goes on.

The desk, the final piece in the program, is designed to include a drawer. Because making the drawer is the focus, everything else is contrived to get you to that step with as little fuss as possible. The top does have a little flourish in it, but the legs are straight and square in section. The rails are rectangular in section and of two different widths. They are positioned with deliberate attention to the spaces between and are offset so that joining is simplified.

The drawer is made using the classic method of solid wood handmade drawermaking. It represents the furniture maker’s craft at its best. There are over 30 steps involved in its making and assembly. It contains, arguably, more methodological and technical challenges than any other piece of furniture making.

The Top

The relief strip of curly maple in the top serves two purposes. It brings a wood grain interest into an otherwise purposefully chosen quartersawn, straight grained, undistinguished piece of mahogany. As well, its white color brings a surprising measure of lightness into the composition of the whole. There are alternative ways to plane the butt joints. Probably, the best way is to plane the joint by clamping the pieces together. First, clamp a piece of mahogany on edge in the vise and then clamp the maple to it using small “C” clamps; then shoot the combined edges in the normal way using an 07 plane.

The Desk Frame

The legs and rails of the desk would typically be put together using mortise-and-tenon joints. I used loose tenons, part of the Festool Domino system. A loose tenon is an excellent alternate form of a mortise-and-tenon. Instead of a peg fashioned on one piece (the tenon), which goes into a mating hole (the mortise), a slot is cut into both pieces and a third piece, the loose tenon, is made to fit the combined slots. This joint is outside the reach of normal bench hand tools. What is required to make the slots is a fast-spinning bit machined to side cut in long grain and end grain, leaving smooth parallel faces and ends.

If you read this site regularly, I’m sure you are familiar with the Festool Domino machine. I’ve used it a great deal but never written about it. To put it in a nutshell, the tool is transformational — bringing about a sea change for furniture makers. What Festool has done is make a hand tool that, when you plunge it into the workpiece, it machines a perfect slot for a loose tenon. As well, they make the loose tenons (“Dominos”). They are made in various sizes to mate with cutter diameters, from European beech, a strong, stable wood that glues well. The dimension of the Domino is imprinted into the beech, and the edges are reeded to fit the rounded ends of the slot and allow excess glue to escape.

Using the tool is largely intuitive. Setting the horizontal fence to position the cut and the stop to limit the depth of plunge are straightforward. Marking the joint is best done by squaring a clean, sharp pencil line on the joint center point on both workpieces. The horizontal fence is designed so that you can easily see the center line and position the tool right on it. Whatever you do, clamp the workpiece to the bench. In this way, you can hold the tool firmly in place to feel the contact of the vertical and horizontal fences. This setup provides all the stability needed as you plunge the cutter to make a clean, accurate slot.

The layout of the rails on the leg is well-shown on the Drawings. If you begin by laying out one of the side subassemblies on your workbench — a front and back leg and the three rails — you will quickly see the simplicity of the structure. Go ahead and cut mortises for the rails as shown.

After a proper test fit, glue and clamp each side subassembly together. This sequence makes it easy to then join the two side subassemblies with the remaining rails. If you are using a Domino machine, you will need to adjust the fence to accommodate the difference between thicknesses of the legs and rails.

With that done, glue in place the top ledgers and the drawer guides.

The Drawer

More than once I’ve written and illustrated the “how to” of making a handmade drawer — come to think of it, I even made a video of the process. Many times I’ve taught it in the workshop, but it’s taken me till now to write down the road map of the work.

For those woodworkers who revere hand tools and their use, a handmade drawer is the “pièce de résistance” (the best item) of hand tool furniture making. Very soon it may be your “raison d’être” (reason for existence — purpose or cause) as machines take over every other facet of small-shop furniture making. These French expressions, rather than a string of superlatives, make the point that a handmade drawer is unique in the craft of furniture making.

In use, the auditory and tactile experience of opening and closing the drawer confirms that singularity.

The road map doesn’t tell you how to do the work. It tells you the steps and in what order to make them. Knowing the steps allows you to do some preparation. I’m bound to say that if you decide to make this drawer without practicing some of its parts, the end result is likely to come with a good deal of defensive excuses. A good practice, for instance, would be to join four pieces — a front, sides and back — without fitting those parts to a case and with no intention of making a bottom.

Drawer Details

These dimensions make for elegant-looking and refined front and back joints. The hidden detail, the shape described with broken lines, shows the groove. The groove in the front accepts the tongue of the rabbet on the drawer bottom, which is aligned with the lower edge of the back.

Road Map to a Handmade Drawer

Preparation

Front and Back: Plane the ends and bottom edges to a tight fit in the case opening. Leave the top edge of the front 1/32″ proud. Plane the machine marks off the inside faces. Sides: Plane the width to be a push fit in the case. Square the ends and make the same length. Plane the machine marks off the inside faces.

Joints

Front: Mark and cut the single-lap dovetail to join the front and the sides. Groove the front to accept the bottom.

Back: Mark and cut the through dovetail which is positioned as a result of the groove in the front piece.

Finish Insides and Glue Joints:

Wax and polish the inside faces, leaving bare the area where the drawer slips go. Glue and clamp the joints.

Bottom

Drawer Slips: Make and attach slips to drawer sides.

Bottom: Make necessary butt joints and thickness to 1/4″ thick.

First Rabbet: Plane one edge of the bottom straight. Mark and cut the rabbet to fit the drawer slip groove. Tongue goes on the bottom face.

Second Rabbet: Insert first rabbet into the drawer slip and knife the shoulder of the second rabbet. Cut bottom to width and make rabbet. Tongue goes on the bottom face. Slide the bottom in place. Plane the front edge to be parallel to the drawer front.

Third Rabbet: Rabbet the front edge. Tongue goes on the top face.

Back Edge: Plane the back edge to 1/4″ overhang.

Fit the Drawer

Bottom Edges: Plane the drawer slips flush to the bottoms of the sides.

Sides: Plane the sides to meet the end grain of the dovetail joints and fit the drawer to the case. Front: Plane the top edge to fit the case.

Drawer Stop

Make and fit the drawer stop. Plane the drawer face parallel to the edges of the case.

Last Touch

The sides and bottom edges on a handmade drawer are not sanded or polished. They are rubbed lightly with paraffin wax, then buffed as though to wipe off all traces of the wax.

Marking Out and Cutting the Joints

The single-lap joint on the drawer front is marked out by two gauge settings and three gauge lines. The first setting (1/32″ less than the thickness of the side) determines how far the tails stand proud of the pins. The second setting determines the length of the tails and, at the same time, the thickness of the end wall.

Making and Fitting the Parts

Even with only four parts, keeping track of what goes where is impossible without a marking system. This system uses fewer marks than any I’ve seen. The four marks you see on the illustration are all you need to keep order, except to know that the face side marks go inside and down and the quadrant marks meet. Precisely fitted drawers begin by taking the time to fit all four parts to the case opening before you join them. With that said, let’s move on to the first of the steps.

1. Fit the front: Plane one end of the front to fit the case. Check the fit by offering the front at an angle: the goal is an exact reflection of the opening. Crosscut the other end as close as you can and plane it to fit the opening. Go too far and the front will be too short. A prudent approach is to take a shaving off the inside edges, so the wood has a minute taper toward the inside — that is, the face side. Assuming the case has straight sides, the front now fits on three sides. Leave the top edge proud by 1/16″.

2. Fit the back: Fit the ends of the back in the opening, just like the front. To do this, the bottom edge should sit on the bottom of the case with about a 7/8″ gap at the top. Make sure the face side is looking at you as you fit the back because that’s how it goes in the case.

3. Fit the sides: Square the ends and cut to length. Plane the top edge until the side is a push-fit that enters halfway or better. To check that you are planing parallel, turn the side around and enter the front end first: it should slide with the same push-fit.

4. Clean up the inside faces: Plane mill marks from the inside faces before you lay out the dovetails. Mill marks must be removed in preparation for polishing later; the outside faces don’t get polished.

Although all steps are critical, this one may not be obviously so. If you plane the inside of the pin pieces — that is, the drawer front and back — after you’ve cut the joints, they become smaller and therefore loose.

Jointing the Parts

A handmade drawer demonstrates the logic of initially making the joints with the end grain of the pins left below the long grain surface of the sides. You make the front and back of the drawer to fit the drawer opening, then you make the sides so they’re proud of the end grain. In short, the drawer is too big for the opening. But once you plane the sides down to the end grain of the front and back — which act as precise signposts — the drawer fits perfectly!

5. Mark out and cut the single-lap dovetail front joints:

Setting 1

Set your cutting gauge less than the thickness of the side by about 1/32″. This is the amount by which the tails will sit proud of the pins. Knife this setting on the face side of the drawer front.

Setting 2

The second gauge setting determines the length of the tails and, at the same time, the thickness of the end wall. Knife down the end grain of the drawer front and knife around the end of the drawer sides. Lay out the tail piece as per the drawing. Cut the tails as if you were making a through dovetail.

Mark the pins from the tails by clamping the pin piece in the vise so that it protrudes about 1/8″. Position the tail piece to the lap gauge line and align the bottom edges flush. Mark the tails as for a through joint.

Sawing the pins introduces a new technique. Start the cut on the corner nearest you. Saw across the end grain to establish the correct line, then saw down the vertical line. Avoid wandering in the first line to prevent ragging out the kerf.

Next, chop out the waste with a chisel and mallet. This is one of the rare woodworking procedures best done sitting down. I use a sawhorse. Lay the drawer front on the bench and, using the widest chisel that will fit between the saw kerfs, begin to chop by positioning the chisel about halfway down the joint. The first piece will come flying out. Make two or three more chops towards the knife line, but keep off the line by about 1/16″.

Next, clamp the drawer front upright in the vise and, slice by slice, cut down vertically with gentle mallet blows. With the bulk of the waste removed, pare to the knife lines by hand.

You can’t remove the waste from the corners until the end grain fibers have been severed. Do this on each side with a skew chisel — 1/4″ chisels ground and sharpened to the angle of the tail. Now, by judicious paring, you can clean out the corner waste.

Assemble the two parts using a hammer. With a hammer, you can direct the blows and easily tell which, if any, tail is too tight. By comparison, a mallet will damage the surface of the joint. The surface which is sitting above the end grain is what will later be planed off to make the drawer fit.

6. Cut the groove in the front for the drawer bottom: The groove is easiest cut on a table saw using a 1/8″ kerf blade. It goes through a tail socket so it’s not visible on the side of the drawer. Leave 3/8″ below the 1/8″ groove.

7. Locate the back joints: The top edge of the groove is the line of the bottom edge of the back. Set a marking gauge to the top edge of the groove and gauge the back end of the sides to indicate the first pin in laying out the back joint.

8. Mark out and cut the through dovetail back joints: The bottom pin socket on the back is dovetailed on one edge only. This avoids unnecessary fussing with measurements to position the back so that the bottom can slide past it. Take your measurements from the drawing and cut the through dovetail joints.

9. Radius top edge of the back: Use a plane to gently curve the edge of the back. You may wish to finger gauge pencil lines down each side 1/16″ from the edge as a guide and another down the center of the edge — this line comes off last. Getting a symmetrical curve in this manner is a nice exercise in plane craft.

Polishing and Gluing the Parts

For me, “polish” means apply shellac and wax — the traditional Arts and Crafts finish.

10. Polish the inside faces: Be careful not to get any wax on the joints or the lower surfaces where the drawer slip gets glued.

11. Glue up the joints: Using a shaped wooden paddle, wet all the mating surfaces with glue, but do so sparingly to minimize squeeze-out. Assemble the parts, tap the tails down with a hammer, then close each set of tails one by one by nipping with a bar clamp. Clamping blocks are unnecessary because the faces of the sides stand proud of the ends of the pins. If the joints are as tight as they should be, there’s no need to leave the work in clamps.

12. Check for accuracy: Measure the diagonals to check for square. Sight across the sides to check for twist. Correct any inaccuracies by pushing or twisting the four parts.

13. Edge clamp the front joint: Because the two outer lines on the front joint are not trapped like the inner glue lines, the glue tends to push the joint open at these interfaces. Close the joint tight with pressure from a small clamp.

Drawer Slip and Bottom Assembly

This inside corner view shows the relationship of the groove in the drawer front and the tenon on the drawer slip. Drawer slips are cut from the same quarter sawn material as the drawer sides. Cut the groove on a table saw.

The drawer bottom has tongues on three sides, cut with a shoulder plane. The tongue on the front is on the top face of the drawer bottom. The tongues on the sides are on the bottom face of the drawer bottom.

The flush slip with its long shoulder lines presents the most demanding work, although it has the simplest look when finished.

A less demanding alternative is to make slips that stand proud of the bottom, thus eliminating the visible shoulder line.

Making and Gluing the Drawer Slip

Drawer slips add an elegantly functional detail to a handmade drawer. Other designs exist, but only this one leaves a square corner.

14. Make the drawer slips: Cut the slips from the same quartersawn material as the drawer sides. Saw the groove in each slip on the table saw before sawing the slip to width — about 1/16″ wider than need be. Make an extra piece to check the fit of the tongues which you will make on the drawer bottom.

15. Clean up the slips: Plane off the mill marks on the grooved face and the top edge that will be visible from inside the finished drawer.

16. Make the front joint: The slip is held in the groove in the drawer front by a tongue, which amounts to a bare-faced mortise and tenon. Mark the shoulder with knife and try square, cut it with a dovetail saw, and clean up with a chisel.

17. Polish the slip: Shellac and wax the top edge of the slip.

18. Glue the slips into place: Light spring clamps hold the drawer slips firmly to the sides. Check that the shoulder of the tongue is tight to the drawer front, and clamp the top edge of the slip tight to the bottom edge of the drawer back.

Make and Fit the Drawer Bottom

The long grain of the solid wood bottom runs from side to side. This allows for shrinkage and expansion front to back. If the grain were made to run front to back, expansion of the bottom would either jam the drawer shut tight or bust the case open. The bottom has tongues on three sides to fit the grooves in the slips and the drawer front. The tongue on the front is on thetop face of the drawer bottom. The tongues on the sides are on the bottom face of the drawer bottom.

19. Prepare the bottom: Glue up boards to make the bottom; plane to 1/4″thick.

20. Size the bottom: Plane the end grain of one edge straight.

21. Make the first tongue: Mark the tongue with a cutting gauge and cut it with a shoulder plane. Check it for a sliding fit using the spare slip.

22. Mark the second tongue: Fit the shoulder of the first tongue tight to the bottom of its drawer slip and knife the shoulder line of the second tongue, using the drawer slip as a guide.

23. Cut to length: Leave 3/16″ for the tongue beyond the shoulder line you just knifed and saw off the excess material.

24. Make the second tongue: Cut the tongue with a shoulder plane and check it for a sliding fit with the spare slip.

25. Flush the slip and the bottom: Using the spare drawer slip as a guide, plane any excess from the top face of the drawer bottom to make the two parts flush.

26. Insert the bottom and square the front edge: Slide the bottom into place. If it doesn’t fit square to the front, remove and adjust accordingly. The bottom should slide in and out with little effort so it can shrink and expand easily.

27. Make the front tongue: The tongue on the front is on top of the drawer bottom. This means that if there is a little shrinkage in the drawer, any gap will be out of sight on the bottom.

28. Cut to length at the back: Leave the back projecting 1/4″ or less.

Shooting the Drawer

In woodworking parlance, shoot means to “make straight,” hence the expressions “shoot the edge” and “shoot the drawer.” This also explains why an 07 is known as a “shooting plane.”

29. Plane off excess drawer slip: The drawer slips were made wider than needed so they project below the sides after being glued in place. Now is the time to plane them flush with the bottom edges of the drawer sides. Check that they are aligned with a straightedge across the width of the drawer.

30. Shoot the drawer: To plane, place the drawer side supported on a plywood board that sits atop the bench. The board is about as wide as the drawer is long, and it is long enough to be clamped to the bench. The front of the drawer is clamped in the vise. When you’ve planed both sides down to the end grain of the pins, the entire drawer should enter the case, though the fit may be very tight. Ease the fit a shaving at a time. Working the drawer in and out will burnish any high spots, identifying exactly where a bit must be removed.

Finishing the Front

The three remaining steps will take you to the end of the drawer making process and to a new level of woodworking.

31. Planing the top edge of the drawer to fit the case opening: If, when you made the single-lap joints at the front corners, you didn’t align the bottom edges spot-on, you can make them flush now and still have some drawer front material to plane to fit.

Either way, you now finally fit the front to the opening.

32. Make and glue the stop in place: The drawer stop brings the drawer to rest where you want it — it can be flush, inset or proud; it’s your choice. The stop is a small piece of material, sized about 3/16″ thick.

33. A minor adjustment: Once the drawer stop positions the front correctly, plane the face to be aligned with the case edges.

Click Here to Download the Materials List and Drawings.

The post PROJECT: Standing Laptop Desk appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

You can see the outcome. It fits into a small footprint and it goes vertical from there. The platform is the height of a chair seat, and it looks chunky and utilitarian enough so that it’s an invitation to dump a case on it without doing any damage.

The first shelf is high enough and narrow so that, with a bit of care, your head won’t connect with it as you sit to put on your socks. The middle shelf has a hanging rail, and the top shelf is wide enough to get anything you don’t immediately need out of the way. On a personal note, I must admit to putting socks on whilst seated. With two “new knees,” it’s easier that way. A seat height of 16-1⁄2″ is good for me, but after I had cut the legs, I realized that it’s a bit too low for taller people; hence, the 1″ tall white feet. They are a quarter of an inch smaller in width and length than the leg, so they sit back an eighth of an inch all around. Two screws and a dab of glue hold them in place.

Even if I hadn’t had a change of mind and added them to change the seat height, those rectangular legs meeting the floor with no accommodating detail to form a “foot” would, generally, look very primitive. The block “extensions” would have looked perfectly well without paint, or I could have run a shallow saw kerf or two around them. You need something that says, “I’m a foot that terminates this leg.” Nature does it in all sorts of ways.

Making the Piece

Even though the wood is called soft maple, it’s plenty hard enough to absorb knocks, so that was my wood of choice. You may recall one of the design parameters was that it had to be a “quick make.” Machine-made all the way! I used a jointer, thicknesser and miter saw to achieve accurate dimensions of the parts. A radiussing bit on a router table took care of all the edges. Lamello biscuits join the shelves to shelf supports, and Domino loose tenons take care of major joinery. All the surfaces were “cleaned up” with a hand plane and then finished with Rubio® Monocote oil finish prior to assembly.

The white parts were hand-brushed with a white gloss paint. It’s a matter of choice which parts you paint.

The Way It Is

In the last section of this article, I’m going to take a step back to examine what went on in making this piece, because I believe it’s the beginning of a radical change in small shop woodworking.

The expression I used was, “machine-made all the way,” and so the preparation of the parts was done using machines, found in most every workshop. However, the joinery I used is not common, and the machine I used is not found in every workshop. That said, history tells us that it is just a matter of time before a Domino type machine is in common use, and then we will be at a watershed in small shop woodworking.

Experience tells me that most everyone wanting to learn woodworking believes that if they can learn to make joints, especially dovetails, then they have the keys to the craft. Their premise is not entirely true, of course, but understandable. I’ll develop the point with a quick roundup of joinery.

The three joints we use in making solid wood furniture are butt joints, with which we make wide boards from narrow boards; dovetails, which are used to join wide boards at the corners to form boxes; and mortise-and-tenons, used to join stiles and rails to make frames for panels, as in doors or frame-and-panel case goods, and to join legs to rails to make chairs and tables.

The mortise-and-tenon, simply described, is a square peg in a square hole. It is the most complex joint to design, as well as the most used of the three joints. Its marking, cutting and chopping take time and skill to execute. To mark it out, you need a marking knife, a try square, a marking gauge and a mortise gauge.

For years, tool makers who have tried to mechanize most things have put the mortise-and-tenon joint off machine limits for the most part. While such machines have long been in use in industry, an affordable, dedicated mortise-and-tenon machine has not been successfully reduced for use in the small shop.

An alternative to the mortise-and-tenon joint is the loose tenon joint. In this joint, a mortise is made in both pieces. The mortises are exactly the same size, and into them goes a third piece made to fit the mortises: hence the name “loose tenon.” The joint has to be made by machine, and a machine system has been used by industry for many years with a tool called a slot mortiser. But no tool maker had come out with an affordable slot mortiser for the small shop. Recently, Festool came out with the Domino machine. It’s a handheld machine which comes in two sizes, with a variety of cutters, meaning the system can be used in typical mortise-and-tenon joint situations. It’s versatile, it’s simple, and it’s accurate. It, arguably, undoes the case for making the mortise and tenon by hand using traditional tools. In short, this tool changes the face of furniture making in the small shop.

Let’s see how that plays out in the case of this valet, first by hand and then by Domino. Once the parts are prepared and we are ready to make the joints, the time it would take to mark and make the 12 mortises and the 12 tenons would be measured in hours, if you had the skill to do so. Now, using the Domino, there is no doubt in my mind that you can make the piece perfectly well; as well as I can, in fact. Marking out requires a pencil and a plastic square. Cutting the 24 slots takes at most a half hour — done.

Having offered my opinion that this machine will change your furniture making, the supposition hangs on the courage and the creativity of woodworkers in small shops to realize its potential.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

The post Design and Build a Bedroom Valet appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

The shoulder plane and its more robust cousin, the coachmaker’s plane, differ from a bench plane in one significant way — the cutting edge of the blade is as wide as the sole of the plane. This means that they can remove material in the corner of a rabbet, a very handy woodworking task, regardless of the mode of operation.

Begin by preparing the workpiece with the end square to the face and edge. Then mark out the width and depth of the rabbet with the cutting edge for both the end grain and long grain.

1. The cutting gauge is fitted with a knife sharpened on one side only. The bevel side of the knife must face the fence of the gauge so that the edge of the rabbet is marked square by the flat side of the knife. If the knife were reversed or a marking gauge were used instead, the upper edge of the rabbet would have a small chamfer.

2. Marking out an end-grain rabbet (photos 2) is done in much the same manner as marking out a single-lap dovetail — and the cutting gauge is the best tool for the job.

3. To prevent tearout, position the workpiece in the vise and chamfer the end of the rabbet right down to the finish line. Turn the chisel flat face up, position the edge halfway down the rabbet, and give it a smart tap with the heel of your hand.

4. Because the blade is a good 1/64″ wider than the sole, you must set the blade so that its edge is aligned with the side of the sole. With the end of the handle of the chisel, tap the blade to be in line with the edge of the sole. Neither blade nor handle are damaged by this operation.

5. You are ready to cut. The grip is fairly intuitive. Three fingers of your right hand go through the handle to meet the thumb. The index finger, like the grip on most tools, points forward. The left hand holds the front end of the tool, thumb on top in the depression, fingers under the sole ready to act as a guide fence. Proper setup and grip precede the practice cuts.

6. The first pass is critical: you have to stay on your side of the line — but this is not a time to be timid. What is required is a lot of controlled propelling pressure from the right hand, a lot of downward pressure from the left hand, plus a tight grip so the guide fingers on the sole present a firm buttress to keep the tool on track. All this is performed in slow motion.

7. Once you have established a shoulder, you can move along at a pace that gets the shavings coming quickly, as seen in the photo.

8. When you near the line, it’s time to clean up the vertical wall. Setting the blade flush as we did at the outset will not give a clean vertical wall. In fact, you never try to cut both walls at once. This sloping “vertical” wall is just as it should be. You now turn the body of the plane horizontal and cut the vertical wall.

9. To make this cut, hold the plane in the right hand. (The view of the photo is from the top of the board looking down.) The left hand acts as a steady in contact with the workpiece. Once you have removed the bulk of the waste, set the blade to remove fine shavings. Planing down to the line and getting a right angular corner normally requires alternately removing a shaving or two from the vertical face and the horizontal face.

The post Forming End Grain Rabbets with a Shoulder Plane appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Making the Joint
1. To begin the process, simply take two adjacent boards and fold them together as though they were hinged at the intended joint. This imaginary “hinge” can be either side. Then go ahead and clamp the folded pair together in a vise to get them ready for the plane. Mark the face of the boards so you can keep their orientation as you go through the process.

2. Use a jointing plane (an 07 plane is perfect but other long bed planes will work fine) to plane the paired edges so they are flat in length and width. Use proper technique and have the plane set for a fine cut to produce fine (.003″) shavings.

3. Checks may be made with a straightedge alone because if the paired edges are flat across their thickness, they need not be square. That’s because the out-of-square angles on the two boards will cancel each other when you remove the boards and stand one edge on the other. Nevertheless, try to go for square as well, and check the paired edges with a try square.

Checking the Joint
Check 1: Rotate the top board back and forth; you will be able to feel the contact as the two faces rub one another down their length when you have the joint right. If the joint is high in the middle of the board, the top board will rotate easily around the high spot. You must remove the high spot if it is present.

Check 2: Pull down hard on one end of the top board and see if and where it lifts from the lower board.

Check 3: Just look at the joint. If contact looks good by gross inspection from 9″ to 12″ away, then put your eye right on the joint line about 1/2″ away. Light will reveal any gaps in the joint line.

Check 4: Stand the boards on end and check their alignment with a straightedge. The panel should be flat. You can take out a small bow later by planing the entire panel flat, but any large deflection should be removed before glue-up. If all these checks show the joint to be sound, go ahead and glue and clamp the panel together.

The post Hand Plane Butt-Joint Edges appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

More often than not it is understanding the small details that lead to success when mastering a woodworking technique. While a hand plane must be sharp and properly adjusted to work correctly, how a woodworker grips and stands while using the plane is important as well.

The Hand Grips
The right hand grips the rear handle. It applies downward pressure and transmits the push that comes from your legs and body. The right thumb comes around and virtually traps the second finger. The right index finger doesn’t wrap around the blade assembly; it tucks down into the casting of the frog. This grip creates a lot of control tension between the index and little fingers. If you wrap your index finger around the blade assembly, sooner or later you will move it.

The left hand grip varies according to whether you are planing a face or an edge. On a wide board, press down on the top of the front knob with the palm of the hand and curl two fingers under it to the left and right. This grip helps you exert a lot of downward pressure, along with the pull that steers the cutting action.

To plane an edge, hold the plane in a pincer-like grip. The thumb goes just forward of the mouth, with all four fingers wrapping under the sole. This grip helps you sense horizontal pressure while you apply downward pressure, and so it gives you more control and balance on a narrow edge.

Stance and Motion
The plane gets its power from your feet, which should be placed a comfortable walking pace apart. Keep your wrist, lower arm and upper arm in one line, and direct the push from your shoulder. As the cut proceeds, shift your weight from your rear foot forward, and unwind until your body has rolled over your ankles. Your more powerful lower body thus will propel the plane about 42 inches. Continue the cut by unfolding your upper body and arms, to push onward another 18 inches, more or less. This 60 inches is about the limit you can cut without traveling or walking the plane. To plane a long board you have to travel in a smooth and unhurried way. Slide your rear foot up to the front foot, then slide your front foot forward. Don’t try to cross your feet.

The post How to Use a Hand Plane: Grip, Stance and Motion appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

1.    The first step in this process is accurately marking up the joint. In essence, drawing out on stock all of the specific details of the joint. A properly marked out joint is the key to creating a well fitting bit of joinery (Photo 1). (Click here to read an article on proper mark-up techniques.)

2.    In order to get to the actual cutting technique, we will skip the mark-up steps. To set the depth of your mortise, simply use a piece of blue masking tape (Photo 2).

3.    Position the chisel with two hands (Photo 3), then firmly tap the chisel with a joiner’s mallet to set the edge into the stock (Figure 4).

4.    Now you have a decision to make. Do you chop to the full depth of your mortise in one process, or cut the mortise in “layers”? We’ll describe the layered process here.

5.    The layered effort will take five chisel cuts before you remove the first wastes:
5.1 Set the chisel about 3/16″ from the far end of the mortise. Tap the chisel lightly to set it — then hit it hard. It will take a few blows to drive it in to the first level.
5.2 Move the chisel about 3/16″ towards you, set the chisel and then give it three hard smacks. It will go a bit deeper than your last effort because of the space created by your first cut.
5.3 Once again, move the chisel about 3/16″ towards you. Set it and then smack it three more times. You will drive it a bit deeper than in step 5.2.
5.4 Reposition the chisel as before, set and then drive it to the same depth as in step 5.3.
5.5 Now position the chisel, back face away from you, 3/16″ away from your last cut. Drive the chisel in, lay the mallet down and lever the chisel handle towards you. Take care to keep it aligned with the mortise sides. Then scoop out the waste (Figure 5).

6.    To remove the second layer, go ahead and repeat steps 5.1 to 5.5.

7.    Once the bulk of the waste is removed, square the ends of the mortise by placing the chisel on the marked line, with the chisel’s back face to the end you are cutting. Align your chisel to a square (Figure 6) — then drive it down cleanly. NOTE: you will not get a flat-bottomed mortise chopping by hand. Make sure the depth is sufficient across the whole of the mortise.

The post How to Use a Mortising Chisel appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Your board has edges that are square to a flat face. You know because you checked it with your square — but how can you tell if the board is twisted? There is only one way: with winding strips.

When a piece of wood is twisted (its ends are out of alignment), woodworkers describe it as being out of wind. This is also known as planar alignment. To check to see if your stock is twisted, you need a set of winding sticks. Winding strips come in pairs and are parallel-sided straight pieces of wood of the exact same dimensions. They are not readily available though commercial channels, so you will need to make your own. In days gone by, the preferred wood for this task would be Cuban mahogany. Sadly, it is long gone, but Honduras mahogany will do nicely. The goal here is to use a truly stable material — so any clear and dry, straight-grained, quartersawn hardwood would serve well.

As you can see in the examples shown, a lighter colored wood glued to the edge provides a nice sighting line to work from. As long as they are accurately made, it does not really matter if they are very fancy (with inlay and contrasting species) or plain. The center marks are essential as you must line them up as you sight the work.

The dimensions of the winding strips shown are 3/8″-thick, 2 1/4″-wide by 14 1/4″-long. The maple strips laminated to the top edge taper from 7/16″ down to 3/16″. But there are no set sizes for winding strips. You can make them to a variety of widths and lengths to support your fashion of woodworking.

To use the winding strips, set them at right angles to the length of the board. Start with the winding strips at the opposite ends of the board, align the center marks and then sight across the strips as shown in the photos. If the board is twisted, you will be able to see it right away. A board may not be out of wind along its entire length, so move the strip at the far end of the board toward you in a few spots along the way. If you find that a section of the board is not twisted, mark that section off and cut it free. Now you can flatten the remaining stock with a plane (or on the jointer for that matter) to remove the twist.

The post Winding Strips appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Mortise Chisel
The mortise chisel is robustly made to withstand mallet blows and lever out waste without breaking. Manufacturers’ design details vary, but the one essential characteristic is that the flat back face must be at right angles to the sides. These square corners cut the wood as the waste is scooped out. A non-square chisel will twist as you drive it. You cannot stop the twist! Levering out waste with a twisted chisel will make a mortise wider than the chisel.

In addition to a mortise chisel and marking tools shown above, you need a mallet, a tenon saw, a bench hook, and 3/4″ bevel-edge chisel. Obviously, hand tools cost much less than a mortising machine. As for speed — that depends on how skilled you become — but after making a few, it’s not slow. For a one-off project, handmade can be quicker than machine-made. As for the pleasure derived from a well-executed handmade joint, well, you won’t know until you’ve tried it.

Before You Start Cutting
Begin by marking face sides and face edges on all the pieces. Face sides go inside, face edges go down.

Knife the horn. The horn helps prevent the mortise from splitting once glue is applied to an already tight joint. You cut the horn off after the glue is cured.

Knife all round the shoulders of the tenon. Then, using the marking gauge, mark the top and bottom edges of the tenon. You can now transfer these distances to the leg to mark the top and bottom edges of the mortise.

Set the tips of the mortise gauge spurs to the width of the mortise chisel. The importance of this setting will be discussed later. Two fence settings are needed: one for the mortise in the leg and one to scribe the tenon width onto the rail. Mark both parts and your joints should look like those in the photo at top right. After you chop the mortise, you’ll have to saw the tenon: how close you saw to the gauge line will be decided later.

To know how deeply you are driving the chisel into the mortise, make a simple depth gauge using a piece of blue masking tape stuck to the back of the chisel and trimmed flush with the edges. Don’t wrap the tape around the chisel because it will crush and tear as you get to the final depth of the mortise and lever out the waste. For our purposes here, the tape also tells you which way the chisel is facing as you look at the photos of chopping the mortise.

Do your chopping at the end of the bench, away from the vise. Place the workpiece over the legs because that’s where the benchtop is most solid. Brush the bench clean of mortise chips as you work. If chips get trapped under the work, you will have to steam out the dents. The chips can also tilt the workpiece, making it difficult to drive the chisel straight.
Joiner’s Mallet

Chop with a joiner’s mallet. A cylindrical carver’s mallet is not designed to deliver the heavy blows required for chopping mortises. Plus, a glancing blow off the chisel handle could hurt your wrist. Also avoid a dead blow hammer. Because it deadens the chisel’s response to the hammer blow, you won’t know when the chisel has been driven solid and can’t be driven further.

Chopping is a three-stage cycle, repeated over and over. First you position and set the chisel, then you drive the chisel, and then you lever out the waste.

Use two hands to position the chisel exactly between the gauge lines that mark the side walls and parallel to the knife lines that mark the end walls. It’s difficult to locate the chisel accurately with a mallet in one hand. Next tap the chisel to set the edge into the workpiece. The importance of how the chisel width is measured should now be apparent. By using a top-of-the-spurs setting, the gauge line reflects the actual chisel width and makes it easier to position the chisel. A bottom-of-the-spurs setting makes the gauge lines wider than the chisel, making it difficult to repeatedly position the chisel in the right place.

Drive the chisel with a full arm swing blow. It may twist if not hit squarely. If so, hold the workpiece to the bench with one hand and twist it back into alignment. If you can’t correct the twist, lift the chisel out and re-position it to take a new, small bite.

Remove the waste by levering the chisel towards you. Remember to always keep both hands behind the sharp edge.

To hold the chisel vertically, stand at a comfortable arm’s length directly behind it. You determine the chisel is vertical by simply sighting it — there are no effective assists.

There are two ways to chop out the mortise. I call them the layered method and the full-depth method (see sidebar, below). Using the layered method, you remove the waste in layers by cutting the mortise end-to-end at half the depth, then removing a second layer to the full depth.

When using the full-depth method, you remove a portion of the center of the mortise to the full depth, then advance incrementally to each end, going to full depth with each bite.

Both methods rely on the fact that the mortise chisel cuts the wood with the square corners of the back face and scoops out the waste by riding on the grinding bevel. To see how it works, get a block of wood — a 2 x 4 will do. Stand facing the end grain and position the chisel 1/4″ from the near end, with the back face away from you. Drive the chisel into the wood with a hard blow, like driving a nail. Now turn the chisel around and repeat the procedure. This time the chisel scoops out a chip as it rides on the grinding bevel. You just completed the essential steps for chopping a controlled square hole with a mortise chisel: you first made a space and then you scooped out the waste. I’ll now describe how to make that space for each of the chopping out methods.

Chopping the Mortise — Layered Method
The layered method takes five chisel cuts to get the first waste out.

Cut 1 — Start by standing behind the work. Position the chisel, flat side away from you, about 3/16″ from the far end of the mortise. Tap lightly to set the chisel, then hit it hard. If you hit as hard as I do, three blows will usually drive it as far as it will go. A dull clunk is the tell-tale sound of a chisel driven solid. Put the mallet down. To remove the chisel, lever the handle away from you; it’s easier to withdraw that way. What remains is a space the same shape as the end of the chisel.

Cut 2 — Position the chisel about 3/16″ towards you. Tap lightly to set it, followed by three hard blows. The difference between Cut 1 and Cut 2 is that the second went a bit deeper because of the space created
by the first.

Cut 3 — Remove the chisel and position it another 3/16″ towards you for Cut 3, which will go deeper yet.

Cut 4 — Position the chisel in Cut 1 and hit it hard to drive it to the same depth as Cut 3.

Cut 5 — Finally, position the chisel, back face away from you, another 3/16″ behind Cut 4. You are now over half an inch from the start. Drive the chisel, place the mallet down, and lever the chisel handle toward you — keeping it carefully aligned with the mortise sides — and scoop out the first waste. Repeat Cut 5 until you have removed the first layer. To remove the second layer, repeat Cuts 1 – 5 and then finish the job with Cut 5.

Chopping the Mortise — Full-Depth Method
Begin by chopping in the center of the mortise with the flat side of the chisel towards you. Drive it solid, remove it, turn the back face away from you, and position it about 3/8″ nearer to you between the gauge lines. You should be able to remove a chip on the second cut. Take 1/8″ bites, and repeatedly alternate the chisel direction, driving down as hard as you can. The chisel will resist coming out easily. Take care to keep both hands behind the cutting edge.

With the layered method, the chisel is levered past the sidewalls twice, compared to once for the full-depth method. That doubles the possibility of the chisel twisting and removing extra tissue from the side walls. I use the full-depth method, but beginners may find the layered method easier to learn. Try both and go with the one that suits you best.

Squaring the End Walls
Once the bulk of the mortise is chopped, you square the end walls. Set the chisel in the knife line, back face to the end you’re cutting, and drive it to the bottom of the mortise. Hard blows are unnecessary. It’s more important to keep the chisel aligned with the mortise and at a right angle to make the end square. Check the ends and depth of the mortise with a try square.

Don’t expect to get a flat bottom on a hand-chopped mortise, but you shouldn’t be more than 1/16″ – 1/8″ deeper than necessary. On a leg where two mortises intersect, the last remaining corner material may be removed with a wide bevel-edge chisel. Note: this is not an invitation to pare the side walls.
Tenon Saw

A tenon saw, also called a bench saw, is a robust tool designed for general cutting. Don’t cut tenons with a dovetail saw: The blade is too thin and the saw will wander. Four keys to accurate sawing are grip; alignment of wrist, arm and shoulder; motion; and stance. Note that four fingers wrap around the handle, but the extended index finger presses against the side of the handle, and points down the saw. This grip provides more steering control. Align the wrist, lower and upper arm, and shoulder in one plane so that you can saw back and forth in a straight line, like a piston. Stand balanced on two feet and far enough from the workpiece so that you can maintain the piston-like alignment and motion. Put your spare hand lightly on the work — don’t lean on it for balance.

One Line at a Time
To saw a tenon accurately, you make four separate sawcuts, one line at a time. If you attempt two lines at a time and things go wrong on one line, then any adjustments to get back on track will inevitably take you off track on the other line. The first sawcut makes a shallow kerf in the end grain. Each of the remaining three sawcuts cuts a triangle of tissue on the tenon face.

Clamp the workpiece low in the vise at an angle of about 45°. Before making your first cut, you must decide where to saw the kerf relative to the gauge line. Remember, you determined the gauge lines when you set the spurs on the mortise gauge to the width of the chisel. However, the width of gauge lines will vary if you measured from the top or the bottom of the tapered spurs. I want to emphasize that the mortise gauge has little to do with the mortise, which can only be as wide as the chisel, but it has everything to do with the tenon and where you make the sawcuts. To determine how close to the line to saw, put the tenon on the mortise and decide.

Cut 1 – Begin by cutting the workpiece at the far corner of the end. What may seem awkward at first becomes easier with practice. Extend the sawcut to the near side, making a kerf that’s parallel to the end and about 1/8″ deep. This kerf will guide the next cut.

Cut 2 – Saw down the gauge line on the near edge toward the shoulder, all the while keeping the saw teeth buried in the end grain kerf. Don’t extend the sawcut on the back edge; rather use it as a pivot. If you let the teeth escape the first cut, they will rag out the end and reduce the guiding effect of the kerf.
Do both left and right cuts while the workpiece is in the vise. Stay on the waste side of the shoulder line. You will later pare precisely to the shoulder line with a bevel-edge chisel.

Note that at the end of each cut, the tooth edge is roughly parallel to the benchtop. That was the purpose of angling the workpiece in the vise at the outset. You have now cut the first triangle.

Cut 3 – Remove the workpiece, blow sawdust from the two kerfs, rotate the workpiece 180° in the vise and angle it as for Cut 1.

Blowing out the sawdust is a critical step. A hand saw, unlike a table saw or band saw, does a poor job of removing its own waste. Sawdust buildup in the kerf is the major reason why a hand saw wanders from the line.

Saw down the two gauge lines on the near edge to the waste side of the shoulder line, keeping the saw fully in the end grain kerf. You have now cut the second triangle.

Cut 4 – Remove the workpiece, blow sawdust from the two kerfs, and clamp upright in the vise. Keep the tooth edge parallel to the benchtop as you saw down to the shoulder lines. You have now cut the third triangle.

Leave the workpiece in place and saw down to the waste side of the edge shoulders to create the tenon edges.

You need a bench hook to rest the work in while you saw the shoulders. Saw about 1/16″ from the shoulder line. Clean up the shoulder and cut it square by vertical paring with a wide bevel-edge chisel. Check the shoulders with a try square.

Undercutting the shoulder is bad practice, so avoid it. The paring stage is where you reap the benefit of a clean, deep knife line cut during the marking out stage because the chisel will seat firmly in the knife line.

Since you are are dealing with a leg and two rails, mark and cut the tenons at 45°, leaving a gap of about 1/16″.

Now is the time to test the fit of the joint. It should be a tight push fit. If it’s too loose, try again. If it’s too tight, determine exactly why before you make adjustments. Look for crushed tissue or shiny areas that would reveal themselves if you closed the joint with clamps. If the tenon is too thick, make it thinner by clamping the workpiece in the vise and paring across the grain, never down it.

The key to accurate mortise and tenon joints is paying special attention to the sequence of your cuts.

How the mortise chisel cuts

Layered method for chopping mortises

Layered method for chopping mortises

Four-cut sequence for sawing tenons

Ian Kirby is a master of the British Arts & Crafts tradition as well as a designer, wood scientist and master woodworker. Look for his continuing articles in upcoming issues of Woodworker’s Journal.

The post Hand Cutting Mortise and Tenons appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.