Earlier this month, John Kunstman gave a presentation at the Lost Art Press storefront on how to make breadboard ends using both power tools and hand tools.
For the attendees, John also prepared a nice 15-page handout on the process that illustrates the process with words and photos. I was supposed to print the handout for the 25 or 30 attendees, but I had too many things on my plate that day.
So I’m posting it here for everyone.
The handout covers just about everything you need to know, from panel preparation to drawboring. John even shows a few of the common mistakes he made.
The download is free. You don’t have to register, or sign up for anything or give away your social security number. Just click the link below and it will download to your device.
Thanks to John and everyone who turned out on Dec 14 for our last open day until June. It was a fun day with cameo appearances from Nancy Hiller and Peter Follansbee.
There are a few tools that I consider essential to making a living. Most professionals in the U.S. live and die by the table saw. I don’t. But I think that’s because I don’t use sheet goods much.
For me, it’s a three-way tie between the planer, my old 14” band saw and my HVLP system. The planer and the band saw are – I think – obvious choices. The HVLP system might be a bit of a surprise to some.
My first woodworking job was in college at a door factory where I assembled and finished entryway doors. That was my first taste of spray finishing, and I have an apparent knack for it. As a result, I’ve always had a spray system on hand – mostly cheapos. A spray system can save days of work compared to applying finishes by hand. Today was a good example.
I’m finishing the parts for three Roorkee chairs, The parts have lots of facets, coves and tapered mortises and tenons that need to be finished (or look finished) to be presentable. Each Roorkee has 10 parts (plus two replacement stretchers), so I had to finish 36 parts today with garnet shellac.
While shellac dries quickly, getting it into tight corners and mouldings with a brush, rag or pad is a challenge. With a spray system, a job that should take eight hours takes less than one hour. And (my opinion is that) the results are superior.
Even when I want the final finish to look hand-applied, I use the spray system to build up a few preliminary coats. Then I apply the final coat of paint, shellac or lacquer by hand so it looks less than perfect. Is that cheating? I don’t believe in the word when it comes to making ends meet.
With spray systems, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get great results. I started out on a Binks systems – arguably the best. Now I use a cheap Earlex 5500 (basically a converted vacuum cleaner) that produces the same results. I can spray anything except latex.
Honestly, the equipment is not as important as thinning your material properly and simply knowing how to spray intelligently. Before buying the Earlex more than 10 years ago, I had a Fuji spray system, which was the budget leader back in the 1990s. (However, do stay away from the Wagner systems at the home centers. I have yet to produce a decent finish with one of these. Which is curious.)
There’s a learning curve with a spray gun, just like with any tool. I can teach people to spray (decently) in about an hour. Learning all the tricks takes a little longer (two hours?).
If you struggle with finishing, maybe your problem isn’t a result of the medium. Maybe it’s the messenger.
When I build chairs, I always make extra parts – spare legs, stretchers, arms and even seats. Sometimes I need these parts when I (or a student) takes a chairmaking dump. But mostly, the parts pile up in the background until a day like today.
I’ve been designing a lowback chair in my head and on paper for months. The next step is to make a half-scale model (I did that yesterday) and then build a prototype that can answer my questions about the model. I also want to try out some new techniques I’ve been pondering for drilling stretchers and cutting tenons.
So this morning I gathered up an armload of spare parts and started building a lowback while I waited for finish to dry on three commission chairs.
What is on my bench is a 100 percent disastrous failure of the chairmaking craft. The front legs do not have the same rake (it’s not even close). The back legs need about 10 more degrees (holy cow that’s a lot) of backward rake. The front medial stretcher is wildly cockeyed.
The experiment for drilling stretchers was a 50 percent fail. The tenon-making technique was a 100 percent success.
But despite all this, this evening I’m not drinking to forget. I know exactly what I need to do to make this chair work (at least from the seat down to the floor).
Tomorrow I will likely fail to make the arm and the short sticks that connect it to the seat.
When it’s all assembled, I won’t even glue the parts together. I’ll take the chair apart and send the bits to fireplaces, compost bins and chicken coops around the greater Covington area.
I am sure that some people will call me wasteful – I could make a sittable (if ugly) chair from these parts. Or I could fix all the mistakes with plugs and paint and build a half-decent chair with 20 extra hours baked into it.
The way I see it, wood decomposes and provides food for worms and other slimy creatures. It burns readily and can warm some locals who might not be able to afford a gas furnace. Chickens love to poop in it. And life is too short to make something ugly or half-baked.
My daughter Katherine is home on a break from art school and made a few batches of soft wax. You can buy an 8 oz. glass jar of it for $24 through her etsy store.
Soft wax is an excellent finish for bare wood, especially on the interiors of casework. It’s easy to apply and dries rapidly as it is a high-solvent finish.. The wax doesn’t require buffing.
It offers a little protection to the wood, but nothing compared to a film finish or a hard wax. We recommend it for objects that don’t take a lot of abuse.
Customers like to use it on antique woodwork to help refresh an old finish. They also use it on leather goods to help make them water-repellent. It is not to be used on your skin, however. It contains turpentine, which is an irritant.
I am not a conventionally religious man. I do have a spiritual belief, but cannot really say what. I hate it when churchmen indicate that theirs is the only true way, and to hear Protestants talk of Papists, and Moslems refer to Infidels saddens me. It seems that all religious denominations have good intentions, to provide for the spiritual needs of their believers, but men interpret these religions to suit their own ends, usually to give themselves power over others. When I have made a good chair, the mystery deepens, for I am not that clever, and I feel I ought to thank someone for it!
My uncertainty reminds me of a story. An old Irish farmer is lying on his deathbed. A priest is with him, holding up a cross and urgently asking him: “Do you renounce the Devil and all his works?” The poor old man does not answer. The priest asks again, louder “Do you renounce the devil and all his works?” The priest has his ear near the old man’s lips, and eventually hears him whisper: “Father, this is no time to be making enemies.”
— John Brown, Issue 95 of Good Woodworking magazine