Glenn's Daily Script » Woodworking

Wondering if my family is coming to Portland for weekend

Glenn — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 04:51:46 +0000

I’m down in Portland, OR for a week. I’m attending 2 woodworking classes (see my woodwoorking blog, This Week in Wood for more details).

Before I left, Kathy and I had a tentative plan that the family would come down for the weekend. We’ve never really come to Portland before and we figured it was a good opportunity to explore and play. Unfortunately, the weather decided to not cooperate. When talking about the Pacific Northwest, when some says the weather isn’t cooperating, you would usually think about a big rain. That’s not the case in this instance. The weather has decided to go to 100+ degrees for the past 4 days and will likely be in the high 90′s on Saturday (when the family would come).

Now, even the boys aren’t excited about coming to visit with the weather being what it is. I suspect that they won’t as one of the key things Kathy thought would be fun was an outdoor activity (not so fun in high 90′s).

It’s a good thing I have movies and a few things I can do on Saturday since it’s a gap day between my 2 woodworking classes.

Post from: Glenn's Daily Script (c)2007 Glenn Thompson. For Downloads, Pictures, and other great content go to Glenn's Daily Script. See Glenn's Daily Script Legal Information Page for Disclosure, Fair Use, Copyright, Creative Commons notices.

Wondering if my family is coming to Portland for weekend

Shop Layout

Glenn — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:08:50 +0000

One of the things I’ve found that I spend a lot of time as a woodworker (hobby not professional) is organizing my shop. I’ve read that many hobby based woodworkers do the same.

I suspect that my reasons for this is multi faceted. One reason is that my shop is relatively small. Another reason is that I’m retooling my approach to woodworking by incorporating some hand tool skills in addition to my power tool usage.

For instance, I’ve kept my hand planes in my tool box. This has caused 2 problems though. First, there is some rust issues due to the metal toolbox and crowded hand planes. Second, the planes are spanning several drawers so remember using a certain plane for a certain job is challenging. All this motivated me to move my planes outward and put them is easily visible and easily accessible shelves.

Now I have to clean off the rust but the tools are where I need them and all the planes are ready to go.

Of course, now I have a few drawers that can be used for other purposes.

New Workbench

Glenn — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:49:38 +0000

Recently, Matt from Matt’s Basement Workshop podcast (go find it on iTunes) had talked about replacing his workbench. It motivated me to try the same.

I had a workbench that was collapsable which was a benefit since my shop is small. After looking at it and considering the actual workspace on the bench, I decided a fixed workbench would work better. The length and height are the same as the collapsable bench but I made the depth narrower though the actual workspace is larger.

Overall, I’m happy with the results. I was able to do it with stuff I had on hand (though I needed a 2×6 so I had to get that) so that made the ultimate project better.

The design is basically the same as the collapsable bench. It has a front bench vice and a side bench vice. I improved the bench dog holes and added some along the front to provide support for longer boards (when edge planing).

Here are two pictures. The first shows the overall bench including the storage below. The second shows the clamp and bench dog holes (I made the bench dogs myself which I’m also pretty happy with). You can find these photo’s in our Photo Gallery (check the tab at the top of the page) under Hobbies then Woodworking.

Blanket Chest – Progress finally!

Glenn — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:40:49 +0000

I’ve been very busy over the last 2 weeks or so on my blanket chest. It is assembled and sanded and ready for a finish.

Here is a picture on the way to getting done:

Here is the final assembled (still needs knobs on the drawers though):

I have already installed the knobs and drawer sliders. It is sanded to 220 grit and I’ve softened some of the key edges though not all because the design really wants to have crip edges (especially around the bottom molding).

My goal for finishing is to leave it natural so it will probably be poly. I plan on putting a few coats of gloss with the final be a matt finish.

UPDATE: I’ve decided to go with a clear shellac. I’ve done a few coats while sanding with 320 grit between coats. I will do at least 2 more.

Woodworking: Blanket Chest

Glenn — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 15:53:53 +0000

I’ve been working pretty steady on my blanket chest and making some progress forward and then losing some progress too.

At the beginning of the project, I had taken a bunch of Cherry wood (what I’m making this blanket chest from) and glued up panels. The glue ups looked great after some scraping and sanding. The outer carcas was made with these glue ups and I had one other that I intended to use for an inner shelf but earlier this last week I discovered it was too short. Rather than going to the expense and time to glue up boards, I decided that the inner shelf could be cherry plywood. After getting the plywood at my local wood supply store, I cut it to rough size.

After a dry fit, I now have to fine tune the dado’s for the shelf which is my next step and hopefully only forward progress.

Once I get the blanket chest, sans lid and drawers, dry fit, I will take a picture and post it.

Project: Blanket Chest

Glenn — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:34:31 +0000

Over this weekend, I’ve begun to work in my shop again.

I know, I know. That’s all I do is stop then start with my woodworking. I think that is the nature of hobbies when you have a family.

My project, for the past few years, is a blanket chest for our entry way. I’m making it from cherry. I’m using box joints which is something new to my projects. I’ve learned a bunch about repairs while doing this project. Some due to improper technique and others do to errors on my part.

I want this project to look great and be functional. It’s got a lot of cost in wood so I’m really trying hard to get this to work for me even when it doesn’t work at first. Fixing errors is a great skill set to have.

Maybe in a week or two, I’ll have some pictures of the assembled carcass.

Workshop reogranization

Glenn — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:19:43 +0000

I don’t know where all this energy and focus has come from but I have caught up on a few things sitting on my desk and now I’ve even gone out to my Woodworking Workshop.

I had some ideas on how to reorganize the shop based on my usage of the shop the last year or so. I’m still using my power tools but I’m also using a workbench and many hand tools including chisels and planes.

My workshop is very small at about 12’ x 18’. I’ve got everything on wheels so I can move things around easily and to optimize space, I have pretty much every space on the wall used. I had two primary goals.
1) To try to get space that I could leave my workbench open (it is a collapsable workbench, very handy for small workshops like mine) full time. I’m using it too much to really have to fold it away all the time.
2) Reposition my large table (it’s a Festool worktable with the legs folded away on a rolling cart with storage below – I designed and built it custom for this purpose) so that the entire length matches the length of my table saw and backs up to it.

All the other things that I did were simply to help accomplish these 2 goals in the most effective way. In doing it, I’ve moved both my drill press and bandsaw to the opposite end of the shop from my workbench. I’ve also put my tool chest in the middle of the shop which has the nice benefit of making the tools easier to access but also that part of the shop now has more space to work or get through.

Overall, I’m pleased with the transformation though time will only tell after I get in the shop and do some work that it not just about cleaning, reorganizing, or fixing storage. My next projects before I resume real woodworking is to replace my tabletop on my drill press and to replace my table saw blade storage system. I’ve gotten some new ideas that were inspired by some articles I read recently.

Blast Gate for Dust Collection

Glenn — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:35:18 +0000

I have had some conversations with a friend of mine over the past bunch of years about these blast gates that I�ve been using. They are very cool.

I had the typical blast gates that everyone uses that were simple lift gates. My problem with them were the first set that I had were plastic and they got clogged quite often. I had to take my system apart to unclog them. I replaced them with basically the same kind of gate but metal but they still clogged and required occasional dismantling to clean. A few years ago, I came across these blast gates:

As you can see, these gates have a circular opening that keeps the channel that the gate slides in clear when the gate is open and as the gate slides closed, no dust can get in the channel. I have not had any clogging issues since I have had these gates installed.

Anyway, I had forgotten where I obtained these gates. I was listening to one of the woodworking podcasts that I listen to and Matt and Marc at Woodtalk Online reminded me that it was Lee Valley that had them.

I highly recommend these as gates. They are very low maintenance and very easy to use. You do have to have clearance on the bottomside as well as the topside but that is the only concern in installing them.