General Archives - The Wireless Woodworker

The Shaker Side Table

August 9, 2017August 9, 2017
by Tim

One of the quintessential first woodworking projects seems to be a small side table. Some call these side tables, some call them end tables, plant stands, night tables… I have no idea what’s correct, but I’m sticking with side. Feel free to disagree. I’ve never made one so I think it’s about time.

I decided on a classic shaker design, mainly because it fits in with the style of our house, but also because the Schwarz did a great DVD for Lie-Nielsen a few years ago showing the build process step by step. His design has nice elegant lines and should last a lifetime – even with those tiny legs.

The basic side table form is such a great project for the novice woodworker because there are so many different options. As I was building it, all of the different joinery options became apparent. I went with mortise and tenons for the leg-to-apron joint, but you could easily do pegs, dominoes, or pocket holes. The same thing for the drawer construction – I went with dovetails all the way around, but you could do any number of different options. If you want to work on your turning you could make round legs, you could carve them if you want to get crazy, or add fancy moldings. The relatively small scale also makes it approachable from a hand tool perspective. This wood didn’t touch a machine until I turned the knob on the lathe.

Shaker designs generally look nice in most domestic hardwoods – Chris made his out of Maple… I’m going with Cherry – pine may also be a nice choice.

Selecting the right stock for the different pieces actually makes a big difference to the final look of the piece – I had no idea. For the legs you want nice straight grain lines on all four sides – Chris calls this bastard sawn, I call it rift sawn – I’m not sure if there’s a difference. The main thing is that you don’t want cathedrals on any of the leg’s sides interrupting the flow. On the other hand, these cathedrals add some nice interest to the aprons, so if you’re using plain sawn lumber like I am, save these center sections for the aprons and drawer front.

The 18” square top requires some more thought. I don’t have any 18″ wide cherry, but do have some 10” wide stock that I’ll use in a panel – you may have to use 3 pieces. To avoid a harsh line in the panel you want to aim for straight grain to straight grain along the edge. You could also do a bookmatch here if there was something interesting going on.

I didn’t film a lot of the finishing process – mainly because if I think if it’s boring to do it must be really dull to watch – but I did a few tests on some scrap cherry and decided on a thin coat of medium walnut danish oil with a shellac polish – my preferred top coat. I finish everything off with some paste wax.

I’m really happy with how everything came out. The cherry is maybe a little splotchy, but nobody except me will ever notice. It fits in with the house really well and is something I’m happy to take credit for when people comment.

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The Step Stool

August 25, 2016December 18, 2016
by Tim

There were a few things I wanted to accomplish with this project and I found a perfect design in an old Popular Woodworking book by Glen Huey. My daughter is just about 18 months old now and loves to ‘help’ out in the kitchen, but isn’t quite tall enough to reach the sink or counter, so she was in need of a step stool. We also encourage her to read her books or play with dolls when we’re preparing for dinner, so thought she may enjoy a place to sit when she’s not helping. Finally, I just installed some 42″ cabinets and the top shelves are too high for my wife and I to reach, so ideally we are in need of a step stool as well. This nice little step stool converts into a cute toddler bench, perfect for small children wanting to help in the kitchen.

I used all hand tools for this little project and it turned out quite nice. This is a nice short project that allowed me to practice some basic hand tool skills and use up some scrap wood. You can take a look at the build process here:

The wood used is all cherry finished with a coat of boiled linseed oil and a few coats of shellac. I’m using these beautiful wrought heads nails from Tremont to hold everything together, but you could use anything you’d like (the plans call for plugged screws). I also found some decorative carriage bolts for the ‘axle’.

It works really well actually. My daughter loves flipping the step up and down and uses it as both a bench and step stool. She’s still a little small to reach everything on the counter, but she can at least see what’s going on up there and put some things in the sink. She definitely knows that it’s her piece of furniture, so my wife and I have trouble using it when she’s around, but I think it serves it’s purpose very well and I can see it being in use for a long time.

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The Frame Saw

June 28, 2016October 16, 2018
by Tim

I love nearly every part of working in a wireless wood shop and that includes most of the initial milling of rough lumber. The one part of hand work I don’t enjoy so much is re-sawing. I typically buy most of my lumber in 8/4 thickness, so for any projects requiring thinner stock I need to resaw it down to the correct thickness. I enjoy scrub planing rough lumber, and even like flattening boards by hand, but when it comes to re-sawing I find it mind numbing and boring. Maybe it’s because while planing I’m constantly thinking about the grain direction, but when sawing all I’m doing is trying to keep saw between the lines – boring. What I would like to do is get this process out of the way as soon as possible, but with only an 8 tpi hand saw, it tends to take quite a lot of time – not any more! Enter the frame saw:

The saw plate and hardware is the 31.5″ frame saw kit from Bad Axe Tool Works and the design is based on Tom Fidgen’s frame saw from The Unplugged Woodshop just elongated to fit the lengthened saw plate. The wood is 8/4 Ash that I had leftover from the Workbench build just quickly finished with an oil varnish blend (equal parts satin varnish, BLO, and mineral spirits).

Construction was pretty straightforward and is just like you see in the pictures. The two side supports are connected to the top and bottom with a dual mortise and tenon joint. No glue was used (the tension on the saw plate gives the strength needed), so I can tear it down and store it flat if need be. I spent quite a lot of time on shaping the handles, which angle backwards and downwards, because I wanted it to be comfortable. I used a plane tote as a template and set out with a few rasps to shape it.

I’ve only used it a few times since completion, but I’m really happy with the way it turned out. The handles turned out great and as much as I want to get through this part of milling quickly, I could comfortably use this for hours. It just eats through wood and makes fairly short work of smaller re-sawing tasks. I’m still practicing sawing in a straight line – it is very difficult to steer once the kerf is set, but adding a shallow kerf with a hand saw (I’ll be adding a kerfing plane at some point) makes this much easier. I also don’t plan on sawing veneer with this saw, so for coarse re-sawing tasks the accuracy isn’t completely necessary.

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5 Things to do when you can’t woodwork…

March 9, 2016December 18, 2016
by Tim

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I’ve been sidelined from serious woodworking for a few weeks now with a broken thumb.

This has certainly put a halt to my project list, so it got me thinking, “What’s a woodworker to do when he/she can’t woodwork??” There are always some times when this is bound to happen – could be weather related (cold temperatures in an un-heated shop?), or time of day related (2am and your spouse, kid, roommate, neighbor, dog, etc… is sleeping?), or situation related (moving houses and everything is packed?), or, God forbid, health related? There are all sorts of reasons that could leave someone wanting to woodwork, but unable to. Luckily I’ve been able to scratch my woodworking itch in a few other ways. The following is a list of a few things I’ve been able to do with my shop time, what do you do to satisfy your woodworking habit when you can’t actually work wood?

Design – I’m sure that I’m like a lot of people in that I tend to jump into projects quickly sometimes. Oftentimes that means that I run into some sort of hiccup during construction, whether that be needing more lumber, or supplies, or maybe cutting things in the wrong order. These things could probably be eliminated with better planning and design. Not being able to get into the shop, but still having some time available, allows you to plan through the entire project on paper first, hopefully catching any issues that may come up during building.I typically start my design process by writing down the purpose or goals of the project, then doodling some design ideas in the shop notebook.
If it’s a detailed project then I’ll take the next step and model out the finished piece in a 3D modelling program. I use Blender because I’m more familiar with it, but Sketchup is a common one as well.
During the modelling process I may run into things that I didn’t think of, or problems that may come up during construction (like the need for mitered tenons on the above workbench design), so I’ll make sure to jot down these notes in the shop notebook as well. Now I can make a cut list or build plan if needed.
Watch Videos/Read Books – You certainly don’t need me telling you that this is something to do in your woodworking downtime. There is so much content available now that there’s never been a better time to be a woodworker. The Ipad normally serves as my source for woodworking material, but I went old school recently and dug out some old issues of Fine Woodworking, grabbed some DVDs off the shelf, and got to it.
Clean – I try to make it a point to always give the shop a quick cleaning at the end of the day – put the tools away, sweep the bench/floor, etc, but over time it can still get pretty dirty. If you’re able to get into the shop and need a low noise or low calorie count activity, then doing a full cleaning is great. I can grip just enough with my right hand to hold a broom and my shop has never been so clean. It’s also a great time to organize the tool box, shelves, drawers, etc. My shop will never be as clean as Klausz’s, but it’s a good way to get into the shop!
Buy Tools! – Woodworkers generally don’t need any excuses to buy new tools, and I don’t normally give advice to buy anything, but the truth is that there are normally always purchases to be made. Sometimes these purchases require quite a bit of research, so this non-woodworking time is perfect for this. Other times, especially when following the advice of number 1, you may run into tools/supplies that will be needed for the next project. Getting these in advance will make sure you don’t have any shipping delays while working on your project.
Visit Museums or Historical Sites – Finally, one of the last things that I plan on doing during my hiatus is visiting the Winterthur museum. I’m fortunate to live only a few miles from the grounds in Wilmington, DE, so this works out quite well for me. If you have any interest in period furniture making then I highly encourage you to check out nearby museums or historical sites. They will often have sections on antique furniture and may even let you peek underneath if you have a willing tour guide! For some possible locations head on over to the Society of American Period Furniture Makers – SAPFM.

That’s my list of things to do when you can’t woodwork – what’s yours??

Blog

Welcome – About Me

August 4, 2015
by Tim

Welcome to the shop! My name is Tim Brown and I run The Wireless Woodworker.com. I’ve been meaning to start a hand tool woodworking focused website for a little while now and finally got everything sorted recently.

Who am I?

My About page has a little background information about me, but I’ll elaborate a little more here. I live with my wife and young daughter on the outskirts of Wilmington, DE. We’re a very happy, active family and have fun getting into all sorts of endeavors. These typically revolve around excursions related to walking, running, biking, hiking, slacklining, or some such activity together.

I’ve always been a tinkerer, taking apart all sorts of things when I was younger and building models and various other things. My dad was always a handy guy, so my love of building things probably came about watching him take on various DIY projects. I remember helping him make a couple of decks for the house, along with a tree house for me and my sister. As I got a little older I started building things myself, the most common of which were probably speaker boxes for my cars and friend’s cars, along with utilitarian furniture, and a few lizard habitats. I was constantly building things to feed my other hobbies/interests and it really wasn’t until I had a full blown workshop in the garage that I realized my actual hobby was woodworking.

Once that realization dawned on me I started focusing on the actual woodworking process and improving my skills. Somewhere along the way I started making the shift towards hand tools and have never really looked back. Realizing that the process of making was what I enjoy the most was important. I very much enjoy setting up my tools to suit the project, sharpening blades, and figuring out how to do things with just hand tools. I’m typically in no hurry to get a project done (there are obviously exceptions to this), so don’t mind the extra time it may take to rip a board by hand, or 4 square a piece when it isn’t entirely needed. A lot of people may not enjoy these exercises, but I find them calming and a bit therapeutic. ‘Modern hand tool woodworking’ may be a bit of an oxymoron, but I’m without a doubt a modern guy and working with hand tools can be a nice reminder in a hectic, high-tech, fast paced life to slow down and enjoy the journey.

What is The Wireless Woodworker?

My aim for the site is to share my passion for hand tool woodworking, while hopefully learning new techniques and improving current ones. I’m optimistic that this will help teach others the craft or at least attract individuals who can give me pointers and suggestions.

Woodworking is not my day job, so I can’t promise a regular update schedule, but my hope is for a couple of posts per week. Eventually I’d like to get into some video content (hence the video link above), but this won’t be for a little while at least. I may even offer some downloadable plans at some point as well.

To wrap everything up, I’m thrilled that you’re here and I’m excited to get started! I’m always happy to hear from other woodworkers, so please do get in contact with me. Happy shavings!