The Big Think

I’ve been going nuts not being able to spend time in my shop lately. Normally I’d spend a month or so building a big piece of furniture, but between the end of the Sing season and mixing the movie, I never got into a big shop project this year before the heat hit. I’ve been scratching the construction itch lately by making smaller indoor projects (see my post of a few months ago called “Tiny Things”). However, a few weeks ago I got up early and decided to just stick it out and start tackling the book case I’ve been wanting to build for a while.

It’s going to be a 6′ tall by 30″ wide case of oak and oak plywood. It’ll fit in our “library” (aka, the extra room upstairs) and will relieve the pressure of the books that have been piled on the floor for a few years, as well as the overflow from the other bookshelves that have been double stacked for quite a while now. I think after this one is done, it’ll be completely full, but at least there won’t be two rows of books on all the other shelves.

I got the 4′x8′ piece of oak ply cut down into all of the necessary pieces and I routed out the grooves and dadoes for the shelves. I bought a 1/4″ piece of ply from the hardware store for the back, and once that’s done I’ll be gluing the whole thing together start cutting the oak for the face frame. Then it’s a coat of stain and a few coats of shellac and we’ll have ourselves a new book shelf.

*Update* Done! The case is now installed and filled with about fifty books. It’s my “Maker Shelf” and contains only my Maker-type books (Make magazine (of course), woodworking books, modeling, miscellaneous hobby books, etc). Believe it or not… we need another one. Sheesh.

Yikes.

I build props for Sing every year. Sometimes they’re fairly straightforward projects (I built a 4′x4′x4′ box a few years ago.. yawn). Sometimes, though, I’m asked to build something that I have no idea at first how I’m going to go about it. This was one of them. I was asked to make a giant functional clamshell that a person could hide inside.

The group gave me about four months of lead-time until I had to deliver it, and I spent three months just thinking about it and trying not to sweat at what I’d gotten myself into. How does a woodworker whos primary medium consists of mostly right-angled material create the compound organic curves of a clamshell? I had no idea, but after several dead ends I hit upon the idea of using fiberglass. I’d never used fiberglass before, but every year I decide which new “Maker Skill” I’m going to learn and this year just so happened to include “figure out fiberglass”. Happy coincidence.

Here are some pictures I took during construction. It was a very fun (though at times messy and smelly) process. It also gave me a very useful skill if I have to make curvy shapes in the future. Overall not nearly as difficult as I had feared.

First, I made a model in Sketchup and sized it to fit a person. It was just large enough to hold a person but not so big that it cost a fortune. Fiberglass is relatively expensive!

Next I measured out the plan template from my Sketchup drawing.

Once I got it all onto a single sheet of paper I transferred the measurements to the plywood and marked up the sheet.

Drew the “rib lines” to connect the back to the lip

Then I measured and made up the back spine.

I then cut the whole thing out and tried the spine in place

Cut out the hole (what I called the “toilet seat”) and glued on the spine.

Next I cut out and glued on the ribs. This was a big pain as I had to reinforce each joint on both sides. It took hours! I don’t have a picture of measuring and cutting the ribs, but it was an adventure. I made one central “reference rib”, then made four successively smaller ribs for one side. I then copied and made mirror image ribs for the other side.

When installing the ribs I had to notch out the back spine to fit them. This was a laborious process since most of the work had to be done with a chisel and hammer.

Next, I covered it with stretched fleece and stapled it into place. This was the “aha!” step. Until now I hadn’t figured out how to make a 3d skeleton of an object into a smooth surface. The fleece trick was neat, easy, cheap, and fast (four good things!).

Next I soaked the felt in fiberglass resin to harden it up. This took much more resin than I thought it would since the fleece was so porous. It basically soaked it in and I had to keep reapplying it. After it was dry I sanded the whole thing, then applied another coat of resin. While the resin was still wet I pushed fiberglass matt into it and covered with a third coat of resin. The blue lines you see below were reference lines for the fiberglass fabric. I had to fit the rectangular fiberglass cloth on to the curvy clam shape like a puzzle, and this arrangement gave me the best use of my available cloth.

Next I traced the shell onto another piece of plywood and cut out the bottom part. I made up angled pieces of wood to hold the front of the bottom lip off of the base to give the singer a little more room inside. The base is on wheels so it can be wheeled on and offstage quickly.

On to sanding! It was amazing how strong and light it was. The microscopic dust from the fiberglass is very bad news (can give you silicosis), so I had to be very well protected. I have several layers of shirts on to keep the glass fibers from getting to my skin. They’re horribly itchy if they do.

Next, I sanded the resin again and then I applied two coats of Rage Gold body putty to smooth the whole thing out. Rage Gold is a little expensive (about $50/gallon) but TOTALLY worth it compared to cheaper brand putty. It goes on easily, dries fast, and sands like a dream. I’ll never go back. The cheap stuff is harder than rock and impossible to sand when dry. No comparison. When the Rage was dried I sanded it down, then reapplied it in spots where there were small holes or places that needed patching.

This stuff really stinks. Literally.

Sanding, sanding, sanding. I sanded for hours.

Next, I bought three hinges and measured them out for location, then screwed them into the base.

Then I stapled some more fleece onto the bottom lip before attaching it onto the base.

Gave the shell a coat of gray spray primer that I had lying around.

And found a beautiful mermaid to model for me.

No so beautiful mer-man.

Watch out for him. He bites.

All told it probably took me around 40 hours of work from start to finish, but I had a ton of fun. I definitely never thought I’d be able to build a clamshell of all things. It was a challenge, but I’m proud of how it looks! It’s given me the ability to build with fiberglass and given me a lot of confidence in making curvy shapes.

Q: What’s worse than smashing your thumb with a hammer?
A: Two minutes later, smashing the same thumb in the same spot, with the same hammer.

Ouch

(signed- Jason, the temporarily one-thumbed musician)

Had a great day in the shop building three big props (well, one big- heavy!- one, and two smallish ones). We’re still not done, but it’s coming together. Needless to say, tomorrow’s forecast of 34 degrees and raining isn’t going to make it any easier.

I really love prop days, but it takes a toll. 12 hours on the concrete floor tossing around 4×8 sheets of 3/4″ plywood makes a body sore! Fortunately, a little Advil and Ace Pear Cider takes care of that.

8 way kinetic sculpture. Neat!

The SawStop table saws blade brake stops the blade instantly (well, at 1000g’s) if it comes into contact with a finger (or a conductive hot dog, in this case). How much faith does the inventor have? Enough to put his own finger into the spinning blade. Ouch.

And even though he doesn’t exactly shove his finger into the blade (opting for a much more carful pace), it’s still impressive to see. Check out this clip for a demonstration, viewed through an ultra high speed camera.

I’d definitely like to get a SawStop some day but alas, they cost about $2500. My current cabinet saw was about 1/3rd that cost and is totally paid off. Yes, it’s cheaper than an amputated thumb, but I’m incredibly careful around the table saw (using guards and push sticks religiously). I plan on being one of those old woodworkers who has all his fingers.

New Yankee Workshop to end. Dangit! I love that show.

Tonight I finished the sharpener I detailed here. It’s not quite as tidy as I would like it to be, but it does the job spectacularly well. I’m finally resharpening chisels that were badly chipped three years ago when a well meaning but inexperienced person tried to use one of them as a paint can opener. The new finish is literally mirror smooth (I can see myself in it!) and I can shave the hairs off my arm.

And, unfortunately, I can cut myself with one of them. When I was done sharpening one had an itch so I absent-mindedly reached down and scratched the outside of my left leg below the knee. Using the chisel. I now have a nice 6″ long cut on the outside of my leg! Stupid. It’s the kind of cut you don’t notice until you look down an hour later and see the thin red line. Good thing my tetanus is up to date.

So I spent a few wonderful hours in the cool shop today watching the rain while I worked on the sharpener I described in a previous post. I got my order of hardware in from McMaster-Carr and went on to the middle steps of the project (installing thrust bearings and collet sleeves, etc). One of the steps had me cutting sections of the main drive shaft from the long 36″ single steel shaft I got in the mail. Did I mention that it’s steel? Precision steel? HARDENED precision steel? That sucker was just about the hardest thing I’ve ever had to cut through in my life. It was only 1/2″ thick but took the better part of an hour to cut a single section out with a hacksaw. I finally thought of my Dremel tool with a cutoff wheel but this didn’t really speed things up. It just saved my forearm from giving out with the saw.

I had to cut TWO short shafts for the sharpener (see pic in previous post for the shafts). I still have to cut three very short pieces for guide pins. Sheesh, I can’t believe how hard that thing is.

The sharpener is coming together very nicely, though it is somewhat difficult to keep all the precision bearings all nice and lined up. I’ve got both shafts and pulleys installed and it’s starting to look like something! It’ll be cool to get to use it when it’s done.

American/Swedish woodworking legend James Krenov passed away yesterday at the age of 79. Krenov is responsible for some of the most influential woodworking design of the 20th century. Along with Sam Maloof, the woodworking world has lost two irreplaceable giants this year.

Krenov’s unique style may not appeal to everyone, but his philosophy of working with the wood instead of against it inspired many woodworkers (including me) to really pay attention to the wood grain and color. I picked up his book With Wakened Hands a few years ago and it opened my eyes to areas of design I never knew existed.

Krenov’s work is very distinctive and some would say spare. He didn’t stray very far from his famous “Krenov cabinet”, but that just allowed him to spend a lifetime perfecting this beautiful design. Like good Japanese calligraphy that espouses the philosophy of just enough, Krenov’s cabinets compliment the wood in a balance of color, line, and grain that borders on perfection. He was an artist that knew how to work in his style very, very well, and he will be missed.

More examples of Krenov’s beautiful work are here.

I was wandering through Lowes the other day and spotted the most recent issue of Shop Notes magazine. It’s a great woodworking mag that always manages to have one or two “must build” projects. The other bonus is that it has NO advertising (it’s only about 50 pages each issue, but they make every page count).

I ended up taking one look at this issue and adding it to my basket. The cover article was this:

I’ve been looking for a good way to sharpen my chisels and turning tools for several years and hadn’t found one until now. They sell $200-400 solutions that do effectively the same thing as the shop-built one on the cover here. The good news is that this clever build lets you get a razor sharp edge on your tools for less than fifty bucks (and far less if you can scrounge some of the weirder parts). I spent a couple hours in the shop this afternoon starting on the main box for the thing. I have to order a few parts from the inestimable McMaster-Carr - mainly two pulleys and a couple of thrust bearings- but the rest of it can be made from plywood and screws that I already have around the shop. After the huge entertainment center project it’s nice to be working on something I can finish with comparatively little effort.

Master Woodworker Sam Maloof passes away. Rob Johnstone has a remembrance.

After years of being frustrated with my finishes on my woodworking projects, I finally broke down and bought an HVLP spray gun. HVLP stands for “high volume, low pressure” and, while it looks like a standard automotive spray gun, these things put out far less paint while doing so at a very low pressure. the result is more like a re-loadable spray paint can that can spray whatever can be thinned to a water-consistency (dye, stain, finish, etc). Automotive guns put out much more paint and you have to deal with a lot more over spray and paint-bounceback.

The gun only cost me $25 at Woodcraft after a coupon. They’ve come down significantly in the past few years (several years ago I went to a woodworking show in Houston and saw guns there for several hundred dollars. All hail globalization!). It’s probably not the highest quality gun (the paint can is plastic), but it’ll do the job for me. Works nice with the big air compressor I inherited from Erin’s uncle when he passed away a few years ago.

I just tried out the gun to spray a shellac/denatured alcohol topcoat on Erin’s file cabinet and I’m reasonably happy with the results. I had to mess with the pressure and other adjustment knobs to get a decent finish, and even now it’s slightly splattery (very fine splats of finish). I think they’ll sand out as I do further coats. I imagine I’ll get better as I do more of this.

It’ll be nice to not have to hand-finish everything from now on. I could have definitely used this gun on the entertainment center. That was a huge finishing job that took weeks.