Woodworking
Woodworking
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I teach and do woodworking projects at the Capitol Hill Tool Library every few weekends. Here's some of the things I've made!
I teach and do woodworking projects at the Capitol Hill Tool Library every few weekends. Here's some of the things I've made!
Woodworking is great when it's rainy out. Thankfully, Seattle has lots of great woodworking days!
The completed cutting board as it sits on my kitchen counter. Thankfully it's almost but not quite too wide.
All the boards ripped and cut to size. Laying everything out let me see how big the final board would be and allowed me to question if I actually needed a cutting board this big (I ended up shaving a few inches off the width in the end).
One portion of the massive glue up. I glued it flat on the table (hence the big glue streak that I hadn't wiped up yet) and let the glue start to set before tilting it upright to try and wipe the excess.
African Teak Cutting Board
African Teak Cutting Board
I'm a big mise-en-place guy when cooking, and wanted a big, proper cutting board not made out of plastics or plastics disguised as tree-based-products. After checking out ATK's cutting board suggestions (I was raised on PBS after all), I decided on an edge-grain cutting board (which also happens to be easier to make than an end-grain board). Teak is ATK's recommended wood of choice as it's hard and tough, and oily, which prevents water penetration and rot. Unfortunately, teak and teak cutting boards are quite expensive. Thankfully, I found some affordable african teak boards at Second Use in Seattle!
I'm a big mise-en-place guy when cooking, and wanted a big, proper cutting board not made out of plastics or plastics disguised as tree-based-products. After checking out ATK's cutting board suggestions (I was raised on PBS after all), I decided on an edge-grain cutting board (which also happens to be easier to make than an end-grain board). Teak is ATK's recommended wood of choice as it's hard and tough, and oily, which prevents water penetration and rot. Unfortunately, teak and teak cutting boards are quite expensive. Thankfully, I found some affordable african teak boards at Second Use in Seattle!
Each board was roughly 5 feet long, 3 inches wide, and 3/4 of an inch thick. Using ATK's favorite cutting board's dimensions as a sizing guide, I first crosscut all the boards to about 27 inches long each, then ripped them to half width, which would now set the height of the completed cutting board. Any pieces that were too short were saved and would be glued together to make full width sections.
Each board was roughly 5 feet long, 3 inches wide, and 3/4 of an inch thick. Using ATK's favorite cutting board's dimensions as a sizing guide, I first crosscut all the boards to about 27 inches long each, then ripped them to half width, which would now set the height of the completed cutting board. Any pieces that were too short were saved and would be glued together to make full width sections.
With everything cut to rough dimension, I then glued the boards into two pieces -- one twelve inches wide and the other about 3 inches wide. Ideally, everything would have been glued together at once, but the tool library's planar is just over 12 inches wide while the whole cutting board will be 15 inches wide, necessitating two separate pieces for planing. I did the glue-ups on a flat metal work surface so one edge would be flat enough to serve as a datum while planing the other side.
With everything cut to rough dimension, I then glued the boards into two pieces -- one twelve inches wide and the other about 3 inches wide. Ideally, everything would have been glued together at once, but the tool library's planar is just over 12 inches wide while the whole cutting board will be 15 inches wide, necessitating two separate pieces for planing. I did the glue-ups on a flat metal work surface so one edge would be flat enough to serve as a datum while planing the other side.
Once each of the two glued up sections were planed to the same thickness, I glued the two halves together with a few clamps on the joint to avoid the two pieces moving out of alignment. This mostly worked. I then cleaned up the edges of the board on the table saw and used an orbital sander to round off the edges and blend the joint where the two large halves met. I purposefully only sanded to 100 grit since that's what I had lying around and cause I hoped having more texture would help hide knife scratches and other wear as the board was used. After cleaning with iso and applying a few layers of a wax and mineral oil mix, the board was put into service and has been a joy to use since!
Once each of the two glued up sections were planed to the same thickness, I glued the two halves together with a few clamps on the joint to avoid the two pieces moving out of alignment. This mostly worked. I then cleaned up the edges of the board on the table saw and used an orbital sander to round off the edges and blend the joint where the two large halves met. I purposefully only sanded to 100 grit since that's what I had lying around and cause I hoped having more texture would help hide knife scratches and other wear as the board was used. After cleaning with iso and applying a few layers of a wax and mineral oil mix, the board was put into service and has been a joy to use since!
Cremina Handles and Accessories
Cremina Handles and Accessories
On the very same trip to Second Use where I got the teak for the cutting board, I also got a nice sized slab of reclaimed walnut. After sawing down a chunk to nice handle-sized rectangular prisms, I drilled centered holes at the ends of two of the blocks and epoxied in some threaded brass inserts I had turned and cut threads in to. These threads where how the level handle and portafilter handle would attach to their non-handle counter parts.
On the very same trip to Second Use where I got the teak for the cutting board, I also got a nice sized slab of reclaimed walnut. After sawing down a chunk to nice handle-sized rectangular prisms, I drilled centered holes at the ends of two of the blocks and epoxied in some threaded brass inserts I had turned and cut threads in to. These threads where how the level handle and portafilter handle would attach to their non-handle counter parts.
A Quick Tangent:
A Quick Tangent:
I had casually wondered why some of my walnut was light instead of the typical walnut brown but hadn't looked much into it. This turned out to be a bad thing to overlook as besides for not looking like typical walnut, the sapwood was incredibly soft and fragile. I managed to destroy a test piece on the lathe where it decided to stop cutting on the sharp cutting tool and instead implode on the very dull chuck jaws. If I did this project again, I'd just make sure I cut out the sapwood before starting. Back to the main story.
I had casually wondered why some of my walnut was light instead of the typical walnut brown but hadn't looked much into it. This turned out to be a bad thing to overlook as besides for not looking like typical walnut, the sapwood was incredibly soft and fragile. I managed to destroy a test piece on the lathe where it decided to stop cutting on the sharp cutting tool and instead implode on the very dull chuck jaws. If I did this project again, I'd just make sure I cut out the sapwood before starting. Back to the main story.
Making square parts round is annoying, as I hate truing in 4 jaw chucks. Instead, I gripped each piece as straight as I could in the 3 jaw chuck and supported the other end with a live center. I cut the tailstock end circular first, then flipped the part around as it could now be held by the 3 jaw. Due to the sapwood, I was very conservative with how much I was tightening the chuck and how agressively I was removing material. After getting each piece generally round, I swapped to sand paper to get the final profile. Notably, these profiles aren't square. This is partially cause I wanted to finish everything sooner rather than later, but I also prefer the out of round shapes from an aethetic and ergonomic perspective. They conform more easily to non-round grip my hands make when I close them and because they're not perfect, I'll fret less as they patina and wear, which they are doing cause I love using the cremina! I finished them with the same mineral oil and wax combo I used for the cutting board -- it's a durable and nice feeling finish.
Making square parts round is annoying, as I hate truing in 4 jaw chucks. Instead, I gripped each piece as straight as I could in the 3 jaw chuck and supported the other end with a live center. I cut the tailstock end circular first, then flipped the part around as it could now be held by the 3 jaw. Due to the sapwood, I was very conservative with how much I was tightening the chuck and how agressively I was removing material. After getting each piece generally round, I swapped to sand paper to get the final profile. Notably, these profiles aren't square. This is partially cause I wanted to finish everything sooner rather than later, but I also prefer the out of round shapes from an aethetic and ergonomic perspective. They conform more easily to non-round grip my hands make when I close them and because they're not perfect, I'll fret less as they patina and wear, which they are doing cause I love using the cremina! I finished them with the same mineral oil and wax combo I used for the cutting board -- it's a durable and nice feeling finish.
Above: before the nice wooden handles. Note how gross and boring plastic is. Below: after adding wooden handles and making a tamp. Note how nice and complementry the handles are to the very brown sides and frame of the machine.
The final fit after only an hour and a half of work! I was expecting it to take longer or to completely blow it and half to start over again.
Post sanding and finishing. The darker color of the finish does a good job hiding the dark spots (gaps) between the veneer and main board.
Magnetic Knife Holder
Magnetic Knife Holder
I was at Crosscut Hardwoods for a different project and found the perfect piece of scrap walnut in their offcut bin. The live edge would add character to a piece that's normally just a block of wood with some magnets hidden inside.
I was at Crosscut Hardwoods for a different project and found the perfect piece of scrap walnut in their offcut bin. The live edge would add character to a piece that's normally just a block of wood with some magnets hidden inside.
At the tool library, I planned to slot out a groove in the backside of the walnut that I could glue the magnets into. A consequence of my day job is knowing that magnetic strength falls off at the inverse of the distance squared, meaning the magnets would have to just be below the front surface to be effective. While cutting the slot, the router bit and garbage router chuck decided to help by slowly slipping deeper into the wood and eventually punching through the top of the piece. After some choice words and thinking, I decided to cut the whole slot the rest of the way through and glue a veneer over the surface.
At the tool library, I planned to slot out a groove in the backside of the walnut that I could glue the magnets into. A consequence of my day job is knowing that magnetic strength falls off at the inverse of the distance squared, meaning the magnets would have to just be below the front surface to be effective. While cutting the slot, the router bit and garbage router chuck decided to help by slowly slipping deeper into the wood and eventually punching through the top of the piece. After some choice words and thinking, I decided to cut the whole slot the rest of the way through and glue a veneer over the surface.
In a moment of totally intentioned/planned briliance, I had a thin strip of teak from the cutting board lying around. What could be a better motif than having the knife block display the same teak I used for the cutting board? Since the veneer wasn't super wide and I still wanted to show off the walnut, I decided to trim the veneer to perfectly fit the slot. I traced the edges of the slot onto the veneer with a pencil on the back of the slot. I removed most of the material on the band saw, then swapped to the belt sander and then hand sanding as I got closer and closer to the fit. I got one side to fit first, then worked my way down the slot removing bits of the veneer and cleaning up the slot until the veneer pressed in. I glued it in from the back and sanded off the excess and rounded all the edges, then finished with my classic mineral oil and wax combo. Since I had tried filleting the glue joints behind the veneer to provide a bit more meat to the joint, the slot had narrowed too much to fit the magnets I had bought from K&J Magnetics based on their super convenient magnetic knife holder sizing guide. I used a file to remove the glue that was in the way and epoxied in the magnets.
In a moment of totally intentioned/planned briliance, I had a thin strip of teak from the cutting board lying around. What could be a better motif than having the knife block display the same teak I used for the cutting board? Since the veneer wasn't super wide and I still wanted to show off the walnut, I decided to trim the veneer to perfectly fit the slot. I traced the edges of the slot onto the veneer with a pencil on the back of the slot. I removed most of the material on the band saw, then swapped to the belt sander and then hand sanding as I got closer and closer to the fit. I got one side to fit first, then worked my way down the slot removing bits of the veneer and cleaning up the slot until the veneer pressed in. I glued it in from the back and sanded off the excess and rounded all the edges, then finished with my classic mineral oil and wax combo. Since I had tried filleting the glue joints behind the veneer to provide a bit more meat to the joint, the slot had narrowed too much to fit the magnets I had bought from K&J Magnetics based on their super convenient magnetic knife holder sizing guide. I used a file to remove the glue that was in the way and epoxied in the magnets.
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