Watkins Wood Works

Tick Tock

2011-02-24T14:43:00.003-07:00

I know that time has slowly been ticking away and I have sorely been missing my time in the shop. I wish I had a fabulous excuse like I was studying abroad or out on a creative sabbatical but that's just not true. The plain and simple truth is that when we moved into our new location someone failed to review the electrical box and that someone was me. So the tools and unfinished projects have been languishing in the cold while we sorted out the electrical situation and frittered away the winter with the excuse that it's too cold to work. Yeah...you heard me...too cold...

Anyway, life is returning to normal, the sun is shining and more importantly those little projects that have kept me away from the shop...like having electricity to run a few pieces of equipment are all nearing completion and I should happily be back to making piles of saw dust in the next few weeks. The first project to finish work on is actually one I discussed in an earlier post "curvey lurvey" I honestly don't have any clue what I'm going to do with them after they're finished up, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. The biggest issue is that once they're done, I don't have any plans for something new yet. I have a few projects that I've been kicking around for a few weeks/months but nothing that has really jumped out and said AH-HA. The closest is an adaption to a Gatling rubber band gun I made a few years back as Christmas presents for my brothers. I've thought about producing them for sale but they proved to be so time consuming that I'm not sure that I could produce one cheap enough that someone would be interested in buying it. I think I'll post up a few pictures and maybe a youtube video to see if there's any interest.

Are we there yet?

2010-10-09T12:38:00.000-06:00

It seems that work on my latest pieces has come to a screeching halt...and I mean a teeth rattling, spine jerking, rib cracking kind of halt. It's for the best though as it means we finally able to locate a home, process the purchase of said home and commence the movement of our lives that have been in a holding patter for the past few years into that home. The tough part is now getting all of the little onesy projects completed around the house so that I can spend some time in the garage aka shop getting it up and running again. So please sit tight, we should be back on the air in no time at all...or so I hope.

Curvey Lurvey

2010-08-18T14:00:00.001-06:00

I've had an idea in my head for a number of years that was inspired by the furniture and buildings of my youth. I have great memories of the Western furniture and designs of the lodges from West Yellowstone through Jackson Hole. The figures left under the bark as insects chewed away the wood were always fascinating to me.

Fast forward a number of years to a "New Yankee Workshop" where Norm builds a cowboy side board in the Molesworth style and the memories of my youth came flooding back. Summers spent sitting in chairs and rockers at the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone with my grandparents as I munched away on mint chocolate chip ice cream cones and traced the insect trails on the furniture with my finger.

After seeing that episode I knew I had to incorporate some Molesworth into some of my pieces. Thomas Molesworth was a Western designer who lived in and was inspired by the Wild West in the early to mid 1900's. His designs reflect those of the local Native American tribes as well as the natural features of wood and insects. He was also inspired by the arts and crafts movement that was going on at the time and incorporated his flare for the West with the simplicity and clean lines of the Arts and Crafts movement. He often used bold colors and materials to add focal points and add life to a piece.

So with that in mind I've added a new series of boxes to my collection. Our Molesworth inspired boxes will use darker woods with rich texture and grain structures that will be at home in the summer cabin or to add a touch of Western flair to any modern home.

Here's a peek at the first go round. It's a his and hers set with matching tops. Hers is quartersawn Bubinga and his is figured Rosewood. They've received the initial coats of finish and will be buttoned up shortly,so stay tuned.

And a close up of the quintessential Molesworth design feature.

State Of The Union

2010-08-17T12:00:00.001-06:00

It's a sad day locally for me. Southern Utah has been primarily over looked as being hugely impacted by the credit crunch and housing bubble burst. For a number of years St. George has been ranked in the top 5 places to retire in the US and as a result the housing market was booming. Then the credit cards came due and the contractors went out of business and with them several of the cabinet shops with them. Our local supply shop was holding on and doing the best it could to weather the storm, but I've just learned that it too has fallen victim to the economy. It's a loss to the area that is going to be tough to fill as they were the nearest woodworking supply store in a 200 mile radius.

What does this mean for me? Well, simply it means I'm back to mail order or mass purchases when I travel to Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. It also means those last minute changes or short sights in planning will make or break projects.

It's a shame that another small, indipendant store has fallen victim of the economy.

Houston, we have a problem!

2010-08-16T15:29:00.089-06:00

I know this post has been too long in the making. The last time I posted up I was finishing up the final touches on my Kane Tsugi bow front table. Well that has been finished and...well, it's been refinished again.

Unfortunately after it made its debut as an outstanding Christmas gift for my client, it seems I fell victim to the enemy of every wood worker...material movement. When working over the details I really wanted to produce the top as a solid top out of two or three wide pieces. I was concerned about solidly enclosing the top into the frame that is built when using the kane tsugi but thought I had planned through it enough that any movement would be minimal. Unfortunately I still fell victim to mother natures whim.

But before we get to the injuries lets take a look at the finished product. It definitely turned out better than my expectations and was well worth the effort at cold pressing the drawer fronts. The book matching of the drawer fronts also added a spectacular touch.

I had debated long and hard about splitting the top drawer into two, but I think it gave the piece a bit of life. The drawers also presented a bit of a challenge in cutting the compound half blind dove tails. Cutting through the Wenge banding was fairly nerve racking as it proved to be extremely fragile and extremely tempermental requiring a very sharp set of chisels and taking very light cuts. Not having cut dove tails in a number of years it was refreshing to get back at it and interestingly very relaxing.

Cutting through and half blind tails in the Hard Maple was a good test of skill. It allowed for a very true and even cut, but was not forgiving at all. In the end it was definitely worth the effort as the contrast between the buttery maple against the chocolates of the Wenge are absolutely stunning.

The small banding around the legs also added some character and helped the piece feel lighter. As I had mentioned earlier, I was not so happily reminded that although the piece is no longer growing and producing leaves, it is absolutely still very much a living thing.

I thought I had given the top plenty of room to expand and contract with the seasons, but as they say...the best laid plans...The expansion was not too devastating and in all honesty the client was more than willing to allow it to swell in the winter and close up in the summer, I however was not. So back to the shop it came and a new top was produced. This go around I used 1 wide piece which I then sliced into a book matched 3/16" veneer that I attached to a piece of Baltic Birch ply. After it was all said and done the veneer finished down to an approximate thickness of 1/8" which should keep things nice and stable.

So with that all said and done we're off to the next project.

Nearing Completion

2009-12-11T10:59:00.029-07:00

I've taken far longer that I had originally planned to post up the latest progress of the Kane Tsugi bow front table. When I finally got back into the shop I had the table case finished up and assembled in no time. Once that was done I could focus my attention on top and just how was I going to address the bow in the front edge and still accomplish the Kane Tsugi?

After several hours of deliberation it turned out to be just as straight forward as the other joints in the top. Ultimately I did have to change up the flow of the joint; moving from a side to side flow as in the original side tables into a front to back. This was forced mainly out of the limitations of being able to machine the joint cleanly on the wider plank that was necessary to accommodate the bow in the front. Overall this is of minimal impact to the piece but definitely gives it a different flow.

I also side stepped tradition a little as I completed the case of the table before completing the drawers. Historically on curved pieces such as this, where the bowed and banded drawer front becomes a fixed size from the get go, the drawers were completed and the case built around them. In my case I knew I had the drawer fronts sized and set, there was no changing this without starting over. I was able to take the width of the drawer fronts and use this to size the table case openings and ultimately size the table. Not a huge deviation from tradition but more of my reflection of Bill McDowell and his going "gonzo" way of working from time to time. I find myself following this style of wood working more and more as of late. It seems to leave things open for interpretation and allow who knows what to occur...and usually it results in a far better piece than a true structured paper design to product.

You can see in the pics above that I continued with the Asian theme arched rails just as in the earlier side tables. I also added a little something extra to the legs and banded them with some wenge and quartersawn bubinga. It should give some nice flow to the piece and draw the eyes through out it.

The top is a bit oversized as I wanted this to be a true table, so there is about 2" in overhang.

The project is proceeding fairly smoothly now. The drawers have been built and the top is finished. The drawer supports did give me some trouble, requiring two different versions to be produced but it all worked out in the end. Just a part of working gonzo I guess. The piece is now in finishing and should be completed sometime in the next week or so. I think it's going to turn out better than expected. It is a bit larger than I had anticipated or even planned, but I think it's going to be good.

Progress

2009-11-12T15:29:00.001-07:00

It seems that the day job has kept me out of the shop more than I like in the past month. Having just returned from a conference in Florida for the past 10 days and then battling a cold on top of it I'm just not sure when I'm going to see more progress on the Kane Tsugi bow front.

Just before I left for the conference I did get my new toys from the man in brown. After ripping into the box I was extremely happy with my purchase. The Lie Nielsen saw is everything I have ever heard it to be. I was able to cut a few kerfs in some scrap and the saw tracks absolutely true.

I couldn't wait for the real thing so I promptly threw a quick 5 minute dovetail together just to see the new saw in action. Not the cleanest joint, but this was after all a test run of the saw...not my chisel action.

Even with the rough chisel work the joint fit very nicely, snug, square and true. I'm hoping to have the table casing assembled sometime this weekend giving me time to focus on the top and the drawers. Can't wait.

New Editions to the Shop

2009-10-09T12:08:00.000-06:00

The latest buzz around the shop are a few more additions to our web page. We were finally able to get pictures wrangled and posted for our last job in Park City, Utah. We produced a couple of flat screen TV frames and an audio visual cabinet to hide away the unsightly HDTV cable boxes, VCR and DVD players for a conference space at the Lodges at Deer Valley condominium hotel complex at the base of Deer Valley Resort. The entire project came together very nicely and really completed the space. The clients were extremely happy with the finished product. Hopefully it will lead to more future work.

I've also had to make a few additions to the tool box this week. In order to do the Kane Tsugi bowfront table justice I decided that the drawers really needed to be dovetailed. The problem with this is that cutting blind dovetails into Wenge is not an easy job, nor is cutting through the hard maple that will make up drawer boxes. I've been looking at picking up a better dovetail saw than my old gent's back saw that has served me well for a few years now. The problem was always the pricing of say the Lie Nielsen dovetail saw or an Adria saw. I just couldn't get myself to drop $100 + on a hand saw. That was until now...

Being faced with the questionable temperament of Wenge, as well as its overall density, I had to doubt my old gent's saw. So I placed an order for a new Lie Nielsen dove tail saw from Highland WoodWorking, which should be on my doorstep any day now. I also was having trouble with my old wheel marking gauge on the last set of tables I produced so I placed an order for a new Veritas micro-adjust wheel marking gauge from Lee Valley Tools. I was a little torn on the wheel gauge as I've been leaning towards picking up a new cutting gauge to replace my old unit. That was until I watched a clip of Chris Gochnour laying out dovetails with nothing more than a caliper, a wheel gauge and dovetail saddle. I was convinced...his method made absolute sense, allowed for variability and was quick. I had been toying with the idea of picking up a dovetail saddle marker for the last year or so, but never followed through with it until I saw the ease and consistency that it allowed. So I also ordered a set of Veritas dovetail layout saddle gauges from Lee Valley.

I'm excited to get the new tools in and get cutting some dovetails. It's been far too long since I last hand cut a dovetail and it's going to be nice getting back into the swing of things again. It's funny that as I progress through things I seem to be heading back towards more and more hand tools. Sure machinery is nice, especially a wide belt sander...oh how I would be lost without it...but I'm beginning to dig the simplicity and the adaptability of hand tools. They're becoming a lost art it seems and only a few masters out there seem to know the intricacies that they allow, maybe one day I'll be able to call myself one of those masters...

Kane Tsugi series

2009-09-30T20:06:00.022-06:00

A few months ago I was asked to produce a set of night stands that would flow with the clients current bedroom set. Their requirements were to shake up the overall design of their current pieces, make the tables bed height, using similar colors/wood and it needed a drawer. Other than those items I was left to my own devices...often the best way to work. I decided to run with with the primary wood being Red Alder, the secondary as Hard Maple and accents of Wenge. It also gave me the chance to use a joint that I had been dying to produce. The Kane Tsugi (pinned miter) is found in Japanese furniture and has proven to be a very striking joint. It's extremely simple and yet extremely complex at the same time. The tables turned out very nicely and have given me a few ideas for future pieces.

The Finished Product

Fast forward a few months and I was asked to produce another piece by the same client to mirror the two tables, but it had to be different. So the question became how to mirror a piece using the same requirements set by the earlier commission and yet still be different enough to stand out on its own. After some head scratching I decided the best piece would be a bow front table. The kicker is that it had to have at least two drawers and not be the size of typical bow front piece.

The design seems to be evolving as I go on. Knowing that the drawer fronts were going to dictate the flow of the piece I decided to start there. I produced a simple arch that was pleasing to the eye and transfered this to a sheet of 3/4" MDF; eventually ending up with a bending form large enough to bend a 40"ish by 8" slab (larger than I need, but large enough to accommodate future pieces). With that out of the way I re-sawed a piece of 8/4 (2" thick) red alder to yield 10 slabs, approximately 3/16" thick, milling them to a final thickness of around 1/8". I then laminated these pieces using a polyurethane glue and clamped them up to the form. Over all I wasn't thrilled with the results. The spring back was greater than I liked and the glue foamed (even though the brand used claimed to be non foaming) leaving a few undesirable after affects. With that failure at hand the project stalled for a few weeks as I searched for a better way to clamp the pieces without damaging the plys.

When I attempted the bending again, my processes were the same except for two key elements. I changed back to standard yellow cabinet glue and used band clamps in association with my bar clamps. The results were much better this round. However as I left the pieces to sit and acclimate, the arcs changed drastically. Needing two pieces it became clear that I would not be able to uses these as I had hoped.

Not wanting to lose anymore time on the project, nor burn through more expensive 8/4 stock I returned to my original pieces. I realized that I would be able to trim out the pieces and achieve my overall goal as well as add a striking difference to the piece.

The past few days has seen me scratching my head on how best to trim the drawer fronts. The only wood in my mind that would complete the look I am after is Wenge. Wenge is the mother of all underhanded, low down, dirty species of wood. I mean this stuff is like dealing with the the mob, give it an inch and you'll be at the bottom of the Hudson with some new concrete shoes. It is extremely dense, dulls cutting tools in no time flat and is one of the most coarse and fine grained woods all in the same piece that is out there. I have had pieces literally explode as I cut through them due to differences in its grain. However for all of its drawbacks, when finished, smoothed and polished it has no other comparison. It finishes to a striking chocolate brown and black mix, with a gorgeous sheen. So the issue became how best to trim the drawers and at the same time flush up the Wenge with the Alder. The easiest and most logical way would be to use a flush cutting bit on the router. BUT having the experience I do with Wenge's dark side this scared me to death. Would the router catch the coarse grain and cause the piece to splinter, sending razor sharp pieces throughout the shop or would it behave?

I don't know whether it was my sensible side or my self preservation kicking in but I decided to pick up some Black Walnut, all on the off chance that I was either A: too afraid to trim the drawers in Wenge or B: too afraid to trim the drawers in Wenge. Off to the lumber supplier I went and brought home a strapping 10 footer of 8/4...at the rock bottom price of $103.00. Wood pricing is beginning to kill me lately.

So overall what direction did I take?

I took the Wenge. My desire to achieve the vision I have in my head of this piece drove me to do it. Thankfully the squaring of the drawer fronts and prepping the Wenge all went very smoothly. I even decided to break up the top drawer into two, effectively breaking up the front of the piece and should result in very nice look. The only problem that I ran into is a slight chip out of the trim piece on the end of one of the drawers. I knew it was a possibility due to its grain structure and even removing 98% of the material using a climb cut on the router wasn't able to keep it from happening. I do think that it will cut out when it comes time to attach the drawer sides. Time will tell.

The next steps are going to be milling up the rest of the table pieces now that I know how big the drawers are going to be. I also need to come up with a plan on what to do with the new slab of Walnut.

Watkins Gallery 3.0

2009-09-30T19:52:00.000-06:00

It's been a few months since we decided to renovate our website but I think we've finally reached the end of that race. Along with that finish line comes a new addition to the site, this blog. I've been thinking for the past year or so that it might be interesting to document the daily life of Watkins Wood Works and our website WatkinsGallery.com