Several readers requested a video on how I remove dovetail pin waste with a drill press. Today I was making more dovetails for my next campaign chest and shot this short video. Enjoy! Or hate!
My favorite project from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker” is the Schoolbox. I like its simple lines, its perfect proportions and its robust joinery. I’ve made at least 10 of them since reading, editing and publishing the book.
But what is the project good for if you aren’t going to school?
I use the original as a small tool chest for household tools. Other people have told me they use them as jewelry boxes, book boxes or a place to hide their weed.
However, David wrote to me today to tell me what he did with his Schoolbox:
I enjoyed the book, “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.” However, I suspect that many of the readers of the book are like me, and dislike the idea of working on a project without an intended use. I could not think of a use for the schoolbox.
But I needed a new lunchbox. The construction of my lunchbox is similar to the schoolbox. The only major differences is that it does not have a stopped dado. I cut several through-dados for removable partitions. The partition walls warped slightly after construction, which is perfect – the spring of the boards keeps the partitions from rattling, but they are still easy to remove.
I’ve used the lunchbox for almost a year now, and it is far better than any other canvas lunch bag I’ve used. Plus, it gets a lot of compliments at the office.
The sides are all 1/2″ thick and the removable panels are 1/8″ thick. The moulding is also 1/2″ thick, but I would consider making it thinner if I were to make it again. The inside dimensions are 10″ wide, 5-1/8″ deep, and 4-1/2″ tall. The partition dados are at (from left) 3″, 5″, 5-3/4″, but you can add more. It is handy to have more dados than partitions. The leather handle allows the box to fit into a backpack, and the stop-hinges prevent the top from opening too far.
The handle is from BrettunsVillage.Com and the hardware is from smallboxhardware.com.
While there have been too many words written about dovetails, there has been far too little written about using wood compression in the joint.
The only time I hear it discussed is on the woodworking show circuit, when a demonstrator is dovetailing a purpleheart board to accept a white pine one. The demonstrator has a wide margin of error when he assembles the joint because of what Glen D. Huey calls “the mash factor.” You can compress pine – a lot – when it is dovetailed into a stout wood.
In my shop, I use wood compression when cutting dovetails to keep things tight without splitting. Here’s how.
After I cut the first half of the joint I show it to the other half and use a knife to mark the shape of what I want to remove. Then I saw out the joint, but I stand off a tiny wee little itsy bit from the knife line.
How far I stand off depends on the wood. With soft woods, such as white pine, it might be 10 thou or so – I’m just guessing at the measurement. With hard woods, such as cherry or walnut, it’s less. With oak or teak or maple it’s almost nothing. I leave the knife line and the tiniest sliver possible. But I still leave something. Everything compresses.
I don’t need a workbench. I really don’t need to build another French workbench. And I don’t need to spend a week in the Deep South in the middle of summer hoisting thousands of pounds of ancient oak with a bunch of (for the most part) middle-aged, hairy-backed sweaty dudes.
And yet that is exactly what I’ll be doing starting on July 15.
The lovable nutjobs at Benchcrafted have, with some help, put together a bench-building event that made me clear my summer calendar, forsake a family vacation and pony up some serious cash to be involved.
The benches will be massive, built like the simple French versions shown in “L’Art du Menuisier” by A.J. Roubo. The wood is ancient, thick and French. The hardware? Authentic – with metal bits being made by blacksmith Peter Ross. And the machinery we’ll be using to make the benches is big enough to handle it.
I’ll be there to lend a hand with students, talk about the history of workbench design, build a bench for myself and try not to inhale too deeply the inevitable body odor.
All it takes is money. So head on over to the high-IQ sperm bank. Get a paper route. Sell off that bottle of fingernail clippings you’ve been hoarding. This is the bench-building event of the decade – if not a lifetime.
I could prattle on about all the details, but you should instead head over to the Benchcrafted blog page here, see all the photos, read all the text and try like hell to make it.
Craftsman W. Patrick Edwards recently made an interesting video on marquetry in conjunction with the Art Institute of Chicago. Patrick discusses the video, which you can view at his site, and also explores the history of the “chevalet” – a saw guide that assists the craftsman.