Shaker Step Stool...Complete

The step stool is complete.  It was finished with danish oil and wipe on poly.

A few extra coats of poly on the steps for added protection. The birds-eye figure really shines with a bit of depth to the finish.

I am pleased with the results of my dovetailing efforts.  

The few minor gaps I ended up with were easily filled and almost invisible.

Next up...refinishing the dining room table.

Then maybe a side table for the downstairs living room.

Productive weekends are great.

After some nice spring skiing I tackled the ceiling in our bedroom yesterday and got a nice coat of white ceiling paint on...ugh.

Today was biking and then shop projects and cleanup.  I have been accumulating lumber lately and have found that the bottom of the larger miter saw bench isn't very convenient for storing it.  Finally picked up some construction lumber and spent the afternoon getting a decent lumber rack built on the wall above that bench.

I ripped pressure treated 2x4s in half and nailed them to the cement walls with the 22cal nailer.  

The supports themselves are just 2x3 studs with OSB brackets.  Simple and cheap, yet effective.

Also figured out a decent way to store the big clamps.  Attached a piece of scrap across the end of one of the shelving units.

I have been sketching some designs for a small side table which would use part of the wide Mahogany board that I've got.  The top will be 12" x roughly 3ft.  I want to have the top floating above the side skirts.  I've drawn it with both a breadboard end...

..and with an underside taper on the end s of the top.  I think that the bread-board end works a bit better.

I think that since the table is relatively small I could get away without any lower stretchers.  Adding them would allow for a lower shelf that might be nice.

Would love to hear any feedback on the design...

Three of my favorite things...

Last weekend Natalie headed off on a trip for work leaving me home to my own devices.... I made the most of the situation.

I started the day off with a couple hours on the mtn bike down the road at the Centennial Cone open space park.  18 miles of sweet, sweet single-track that was perfectly tacky from the recent snow.

On my way back to the house I stopped by the store and picked up a rack of ribs. After cleaning out the grill..it's been overdue for awhile.. I got some applewood smoke rolling and loaded up the ribs.  I spent the afternoon cutting the rest of the dovetails for the shaker step stool that I am working on while checking the ribs every half hour to apply the bourbon mop.

Just in time for dinner I finished up the dovetails and got the two sides glued up and in the clamps. After two hours of smoke the ribs spent another hour wrapped in foil and then onto the plate with some smoked sweet potato mash and leftover Thai past salad.

Shaker Step Stool...part III

Over this past weekend I was able to get the rest of the dovetails cut for the shaker step stool.  Here it is, dry fit to check alignment.  So far so good.

On Sunday, Nick and I took a trip down the hill to run some errands.  One of the things I picked up was some Old Brown Glue.  I have been thinking about trying liquid hide glue for awhile and thoughts this would be a great opportunity as I was sure that glueing the dovetails would result in a lot of squeeze out. Some quick feedback from the guys on the MWA G+ community while we were driving convinced me that the OBG was the way to go for liquid hide glue.

When it came time to glue the steps in place...I learned a few things.  You do get a lot of squeeze out glueing dovetails, liquid hide glue makes things nice and slippery for assembly.....and I need some shorter clamps.

Did I mention that I need some shorter clamps?  or just more clamps in general.  I should have glued each of the front stretchers separately or at least used a caul across the front of them.

Out of the clamps, not too bad.  Still needs some cleanup.  Hardest part about cleaning up the endgrain of the tails was clamping the stool well enough to keep the plane from just chattering across. I was glad I spent the time sharping all the plane irons as birdseye maple end grain is tough stuff, even with a sharp blade.

The other thing that I bought while out and about on sunday was a Bosch random orbit sander and a stack of sanding disks.  The disks were on clearance at Rockler, I'm guessing because they are 5 hole disks.  Luckily they seem to work just fine with the 8 hole sander.  Attaching the shop vac was not terribly successful as the hose I have is pretty stiff and I felt that there was too much suction to allow the sander to really work properly.  After working with the sander for a couple days I can say that the built in dust collection is so good I may not even mess with trying to get a better setup for the shop vac.  I've still been wearing a respirator, but I can sand without getting covered in dust. 

Here it is, all cleaned up and rough sanded.  I still have a few more areas to touch up and then its time to do the finish sanding and get some finish on it.

Shaker step stool..part II

Some progress and some questions.  I put some finish on a few offcuts and I am pleased with how the wood looks.

The dovetails for the lower step are also done and came out pretty decent for my first attempt in thicker stock.  Tried a few different techniques but found that the hand saw worked best for cutting to my marks and then using the band saw to hog out most of the waste before cleaning them up with the chisels.

Not to bad, definitely room for improvement though.

Lower step dry fit.  I am thinking about cutting about an inch off the height.  It is currently 10 inches with the stop step at 20.  I think 8 or 9 inches might be perfect.

Shaker Step Stool...part 1

It's been a few weeks since the last project wrapped up so it feels good to dig into something new.  The step stool designs I had been playing with just weren't exciting me, I like them but there is something missing still.  Last week I ran to the hardwood supply at lunch to check out their monthly specials.  They had cherry and birdseye maple on sale.  In the future I should probably plan on going before the very end of the month so the pile isn't quite so picked over, but I did manage to find a couple boards that I liked.  The cherry had nice color but had some defects and the maple had pretty heavy birdseye figure but again had some large defects.  It occurred to me that this wood might make a really nice shaker style step stool.

http://lumberjocks.com/assets/pictures/projects/192660-438x.jpg?1296015844

Something Like this.... but with the birdseye maple for the steps.  This evening I got all the pieces milled.  One of the longer cherry parts had a slight bow, not sure yet whether I am going to try and deal with that or not. I think that once everything goes together it should be slight enough that it won't cause any problems.

All the pieces laid out on the bench.  I'm not certain about the proportions yet, I might make the 1st step a bit lower, it is at 10 inches now.

Images of the two side panels to be.  These won't be glued up until after the dovetails are cut for the steps.

It is a bit hard to see in the picture but this board had some pretty consistently heavy birdseye figure.

This should be a fun project and will be a good bit of practice cutting dovetails.  

Sharpening...

A necessary chore before getting started on the next project.  I recently upgraded from sandpaper on granite tile...aka scary sharp..to a diamond plate and water stone combo.  So far it is a huge improvement in both ease of use and results.

After hours of reading about other people's systems and agonizing over which dubbed to start with I decided that I just need to get something and start experimenting.
I ended up buying a DMT Duosharp coarse/extra fine and the Norton 4000/8000 combo.




First the DMT... I am really liking how quickly it cuts for the respective grit size and how even of a scratch pattern I am getting.  I do think that I will likely pick up an extra course plate to speed up the grinding as I do not have a grinder. It does seem to cut much better if it is kept nice and wet to help the swarf flow out of the way.


My main reservation with the Norton stone was that the 4000 grit needed to be soaked prior to use.  This hasn't turned it to be much of an issue as I seem to do quite a bit of sharpening whenever I get set up.  Being able to just throw some water on the 8000 and go to work is nice for a little touch up while working. 


The only complaint so far is that the 8000 grit side of the stone had a pretty bad crown to it.  10 minutes with some sandpaper and the DMT and it is mostly flat but the corners are still a bit low. This is visible in the pictures.  Since the lowest spots are almost 1/32  low I am just living with it and not using the corners.  I figure I will eventually wear down the middle of the stone enough that it will be truly flat across the whole face.