The Bois Shop

Walking a Fine Line

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Thu, 5 Nov 2015 22:23:00 -0500

In this episode, I really had to make some difficult choices around stringing for the drawers. In a lot of cases, it pays to do some mock-ups and experimentation to really come up with the best solution to any woodworking problem. In this episode, I put the finishing touches on the drawers, fix my little snafu from episode two, and get the final finish and hardware in place. In the end, this project was far more work than I expected it to be. I always seem to introduce either changes in direction (via mistakes) or additional complexity that seems simple in the design phase, but a lot more effort in practice. But that's what makes woodworking fun and challenging, and why I keep coming back for more!

When doves make me cry

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Fri, 8 May 2015 12:38:00 -0400

It’s no secret that I like to incorporate lots of curved lines into my pieces. Generally I start with a concept and decide where I want to bend some lines to add visual appeal, and most of the time I have little concern for how much more complex it will make the project. As a result, I almost always underestimate the extra work involved in adding even simple curvature. So of course this piece is no different. In my mind, dovetailing into the sides of a curved drawer front is really no different than a flat drawer front.

But especially with a bow-front drawer, this is not the case at all. There are angles that need to be cut in the top and the shoulders of each tail that then need to fit into a similar angle in the dovetail sockets. So this episode focuses not on how to hand cut dovetail drawers, but more how the process differs for bow-front drawers.

Frontin'

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 11:45:00 -0500

With the hanging cabinet project, I saved the hardest part for the end - the drawers. Because the base is bowed, the drawer construction takes on an added element of difficulty. In this episode, I tackle fitting and shaping the drawer fronts from a single piece of mahogany. In many ways, I assumed that by doing a smaller project like this would actually make construction easier. But in reality, the diminutive size can actually make things a bit tricker in some cases, such as the drawer fronts. But why would I want to make thing easy on myself?

Back in stile

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Mon, 6 Oct 2014 21:17:00 -0400

Remember the hanging wall cabinet? Well it still doesn't have any doors or drawers - so let's remedy that situation. I decided the door fronts would be first, and why not amp it up a bit with through haunched tenons. I love haunched tenons because they let me cut all the grooves straight down all the rails and stiles on the router table without having to square anything off with hand tools. But they do add an extra level of difficulty to the tenon construction. So I'll show you a way I quickly measure out the haunches and cut them with a hand saw.

And with stiles just an inch wide, I was worried shorter tenons might not be strong enough. So I decided to just run the mortises all the way through the stock. Top it off with some raised cherry panels for effect, I think these door fronts will really complement the hanging wall cabinet. Which reminds me, I need to start looking for some hinges pretty soon. Enjoy!

Fitting in

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Fri, 4 Jul 2014 10:23:00 -0400

The final carcass construction for the hanging wall cabinet requires a lot of fine tuning of the drawer dividers and shelves. Even on a small piece like this, dialing in the thickness of the dividers and notching everything out to create a nice clean joint really makes the difference in a hand-built piece. Any gaps or loose joints will definitely get noticed, especially in the drawer dividers where there's nowhere to hide. This short episode also shows how important hand tools are even if you have a predominantly electron-fueled shop. Then, in the next episodes I will focus on the door fronts and then the curved drawers.

Divide and conquer

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Sat, 24 May 2014 11:16:00 -0400

Well, this one isn't called the groove project for nothin'. While I now have all the shelves in place, I still needed to address the divider that will house the three drawers. Since the vertical dividers need to slide into grooves in both the horizontal divider and case bottom, this is the last step before being able to glue up the carcass. While it sounds like a fairly simple task, I decided to make these stopped grooves which eliminated a few options such as the dado stack on my table saw. But I thought of an old trick on a rarely-used jig to solve the problem.

Making Lemonade

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Tue, 8 Apr 2014 11:33:00 -0400

Moving along in my hanging wall cabinet project, I was really starting to feel like I was getting my groove back. In this next phase of the project, however, I needed to tackle some tricky joinery with some fairly thin stock. While this project originally seemed like a good way to ease myself back into woodworking game shape, I quickly realized the joinery I decided to use - stopped dados and sliding dovetails - wasn't going to be quite a easy as I hoped.

As it turns out, my biggest challenge actually had little to do with experience, technique, or materials. But rather a simple design flaw in a tool that can be found in almost every shop. In this episode, you can find out where I ran into trouble and how I plan to make lemons out of lemonade.

How Bois got his groove back...

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 20:32:00 -0400

Sometimes, despite your best intentions you just can't always find time to get into the shop. I hear it all the time from fellow woodworkers, but I was sure I was immune to this terrible condition. Well it finally happened to me - for about the last nine months. But I was not discouraged. I believe that in many ways woodworking is just like riding a bike - you hop back on and it all comes back. But when it comes to more refined techniques and skills, these are things you need to hone on a regular basis to stay in shape.

So with a big project looming in the future, I was a bit hesitant to just jump right back on the saddle. I decided to design something that would help me hone those skills again with a lower risk factor, while also resulting in something I could be proud of and share. You know, something to help me get my groove back. So this next episode is what I call my "groove" project. And as I'm finding out, this will take on a double meaning as you get into a few episodes. If nothing else, I hope I can inspire some folks who have been arm-chair quarterbacking to get back in the game. Or back it the saddle. Or whatever metaphor works best for you. Enjoy!

The definitive shop tour

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 21:32:00 -0500

It's been a long time since my last post, and I've gotten a lot of emails and questions about my time off. Well sometimes life just happens. I have a job now that requires quite a bit more travel and free time has gotten tougher to come by. However, I did find the time to work on one of the most requested "projects" I've gotten over the past few years - a shop tour.

I'm at the stage now with the shop where I have the tools and the workflow in place to accommodate my design and construction methods. I have a few more tweaks I want to make here and there, and a shop is never truly done. But for the most part I'm at a point in the evolution of my shop that I'm tuning rather than filling major gaps.

I have also completed the design and dimensioning phases of my next project, which will be my next series. In my time off I also spent some time and money to upgrade my entire video and audio setup as well as my production software. As a result, you should see a much higher quality of production in this new series (sadly the shop tour was done entirely on my old equipment).

If you have any questions about my shop setup, rationale for various decisions, or feedback on any of the tools and processes, just shoot me a comment. As always I'm happy to respond (at least when I'm not at 40,000 feet).

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A photo finish

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Tue, 7 May 2013 09:50:00 -0400

I think I made this project far more complicated than it needed to be. But despite my mistakes and design changes, I think I actually ended up with something at least presentable in the end. I built this piece from the beginning to show at The Furniture Project, which Eli Cleveland and crew put on every year to promote hand crafted furniture to the public. Hopefully I did the show (and an unsuspecting walnut tree) proud.

Sadly, this marks the end of this project, but have a few concepts already in mind for the next one. In the meantime, I'm thinking a proper shop tour is long overdue, and it might be the perfect intermission to the next big thing.

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Don't get your drawers in a bunch

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:17:00 -0400

I have to admit, in the last episode I think I made more mistakes in a few steps than I've ever made in a full project before. Improvising on a piece of furniture isn't always the best approach. So in this installment, I made a real effort to do whatever I could to eliminate mistakes.

Because the drawers for this table go into the sides, rather than the front, there's a lot less structure to build runners and kickers into. Normally you have the back to anchor the guts of the drawer guides. So in this case, I had to fit drawer guides into the front and back aprons. And then manage to get the false drawer fronts in place.

I didn't expect this part of the project to be particularly challenging. I was in for a bit of a surprise.

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Not your average drawers

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Sun, 7 Apr 2013 11:01:00 -0400

This episode is all about gluing up the carcass to allow me to then measure and fit the drawers. While this seemed like a fairly simple phase of the project, I still managed to walk into yet another brainless blunder. In the last episode, I learned first-hand how it can be challenging to "design on the fly". I never drew up any plans or built a model for the project because it seemed fairly straightforward. Well in this episode, I pretty much convinced myself that I need to draw up design plans for EVERY project, no matter how simple. I think even my next door stopper will have a full 3D model and full scale mock-up ;)

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A game of recovery

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:56:00 -0400

You might recall that I’m building this entire live-edge hall table completely on the fly. This all started with the live-edge top dictating the exact size and shape of the carcass. While this project seemed simple enough, having no drawings, model, or even sketch started to become a limitation. I started to make some fairly dumb mistakes that I would have easily avoided by looking at a 3D model or even a sketch. But woodworking is a game of recovery and agility, and fortunately I didn’t screw anything up so badly that I had to start over. I retrospect, deciding to introduce drawers into the plan this late in the game probably didn’t set me up for success!

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A simple solution to complex joinery

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Sun, 3 Mar 2013 09:32:00 -0500

With the aprons veneered, its time to start thinking about my joinery. The trick to this step is twofold. I have a curved front apron, which would be almost impossible to clamp into my tenon jig, or even a vice to cut tenons by hand. And secondly, the legs meet the aprons at roughly a 5 degree angle, adding to the complexity. But as is often the case when I face this kind of challenge, the solution is a green one.

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The pressing issue of matched aprons

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:36:00 -0500

In my last episode, I created the curved front apron out of maple. However, my plan for the carcass of my hall table is for cherry. So in this episode I explain how I made my own veneers and then used three different clamping or pressing techniques to apply the veneers to all four table aprons. I could have made life a lot easier on myself if I had about twice as many clamps as I do, proving once again the axiom that a woodworker can never have too many clamps.

Some of you may have also heard my recent discussion on the Fine Woodworking Shop Talk Live podcast where I mentioned a recent mistake I had made with a vacuum press. While the footage in this video shows the "after" scenario, my first attempt at veneering my side aprons found me struggling with a hole in the vacuum bag. A simple piece of tape fixed the problem, but remind me how important it is to do a dry run of ANY kind of clamping technique before the glue gets involved.

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Stacking the odds

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:11:00 -0500

In true Nakashima style, I wanted the live edge top for my hall table to dictate the size and shape of the carcass that supports is. Since the front of the table top follows a gentle curved shape, I want to match the same curve to the front apron of the table.

In my curved front writing desk project from a few years back, I used a bent lamination technique to create the curved drawer fronts. The technique works great if you don't need to cut any big joinery into the components. But to created the crescent front for this hall table, I need to build an apron that can be tenoned into the legs. Unfortunately, the big weakness of bent lamination is that if you shape or cut the piece and sever too many glue joints, you can weaken the bond.

So for this project, I decided to use a stacked lamination technique where I built up the apron structure out of four pieces of stacked maple which I will ultimately veneer with cherry to match the rest of the carcass. I originally thought I was using soft maple, but it turns out I was working with rock maple, so there was a little more elbow grease involved than I had expected. But I'm sure going to have one strong front apron!

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The Tuscan Design Method

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:16:00 -0500

In the first two episodes of this build, I worked on getting my live-edge table top shaped. This is actually the reverse process from how I typically work. Usually I start with the carcass and then move on to the top, but in this case the irregular shape of the top needs to actually inform the shape of the base. But in order to be able to lay out my aprons, I must have my legs designed and built first. In this episode, I'll walk you through my organic design process for creating what ultimately became tusk-shaped legs. Then in the next set of episodes, I'll get into the actual layout and construction of the base and joinery - probably my favorite part of any project. And stay tuned, because this project is going to have a fun little twist in the design of the carcass itself.

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Just plane hard work

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:13:00 -0500

In this second episode of my live-edge table, I take to the hand planes. This slab is too wide to get through my planer let alone my jointer, so it's time to roll up the sleeves and work up a sweat. I found the slab had a fairly pronounced twist, and I also ran into some trouble finding a good way to clamp it to my bench for planing. So beware to the purists, I do actually have to resort to some key power tools to get the job done. Next time, I'm totally building one of those router jigs that Nick Offerman uses in his shop.

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Slab happy

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:48:00 -0500

I met with a local sawyer over the summer, and while I was at his shop, he uncovered his special stash of walnut slabs. He had almost a complete flitch of 8/4 walnut slabs, and I couldn't leave for home without at least one board. I had no idea what I was going to use it for, but it was priced right and I happily made room in my shop to store it until I had a use for it.

Well, I finally decided it was time to turn it into furniture. I had a rough idea in my mind that it would become a hall table, but I decided to use the shape and size of the slab itself to dictate the design, rather than the other way around. So this project is going to be designed as I go, and I already have a few fun ideas of some twists I can incorporate into the piece.

This first episode is all about stock prep. And with a slab almost 22" wide, my power planer and jointer are of no use. So I'll be rolling up my sleeves and doing a lot of hand tool work to start. Which is perfect because it just started getting cold in my shop!

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An Open and Shut Project

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:35:00 -0500

With the finish applied, I found that putting the final touches on my custom screen door project went very smoothly. I used to paint houses to help pay my way through college, and I remember vividly how challenging it was to cut in around screen doors. Especially ones like my project with lots of panes of screen. So I really appreciated being able to tack in the screening and the moldings post-finish. It was really satisfying to get this door hung, although now that it's getting late in the fall I won't really get to make full use of it until next Spring. But I can at least rest assured this door will survive the New England winters a lot better than my old Home Depot door!

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You say molding, I say moulding

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Fri, 9 Nov 2012 12:43:00 -0500

In almost every project I do, I usually feel like I'm coming down the home stretch only to realize that there are a whole bunch of small steps left. Each individual step is a fairly straightforward process but when put together, there's actually more work left than I'd really anticipated. This screen door project was no different. I had the door glued up and seemingly almost done, but the little details like chamfering the edges, cutting the hinge mortises, milling the mouldings, and applying the finish really added up. I also needed to apply at least four coats of finish since this is an outodoor project, which also added a good week of time to the build.

All that being said, its the small things that can really make or break a project. This is the point where it's so tempting to cut a few corners here and there, but usually where you can separate a good project from a great project in the final outcome. After the finish cures, I'll finally be ready to fit in the screening and hang my door and be happy knowing I did all the little things right.

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Coming together

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 10:12:00 -0400

In this episode, I really make some strides in my screen door project. All the care I put into material selection and milling really paid off when it came time to actually cut all my joinery and glue up the frame. Any warp, twist, or bow would have created some real challenges when cutting the rabbets and mortises at this stage. While the glue-up itself was a bit challenging, I found a way to use my bench limit the potential for problems. Up next, I'll pre-finish the door and install the screen.

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Warped woodworking

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Tue, 9 Oct 2012 13:23:00 -0400

In Episode One of my screen door project, I took great care in lumber selection and milling process to ensure I ended up with really straight stable stock. But as you'll see in this episode, my decision to let the stock sit partially milled in my shop for two weeks really paid off. My experience has been that with most kiln-dried lumber, you really need to pay very close attention to your milling process to end up with stable material. But by following my patient process, I will end up with a much better final product and can move on to the fun part of the project, the joinery, in the next installment.

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Opening the door to a new season

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 11:44:00 -0400

I don't officially break this blog down by seasons, but since I did start in early October nearly three years ago, this is unofficially the beginning of my third season. Fittingly, I have chosen a door (or more accurately a screen door) to kick off year three. This one is for my most important and most demanding client, otherwise known as my wife.

We live in a house built over 100 years ago, and I had replaced the old drafty back door a few years back. At the time, I made do with a crappy box store screen door since it was more of an afterthought to the project. Well, a few winters later and that cheapo door is literally falling apart (you mean scarf jointed stiles don't hold up to New England weather?).

So I decided to design and build a new screen door incorporating both materials and design elements found in my house. I also figured this would be another good test of my Festool Domino XL which is ideally suited for hardwood doors. So this first episode concentrates on my material choice, design process, and stock preparation - all critical for an outdoor project that needs to stand up to some brutal winters and hot humid summers - extremes that push the limits of hardwood construction and design.

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Neil Lamens Remembered

rob@newtonwoodworking.com (Rob Bois) — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 00:09:00 -0400

I initially created this blog simply as a way to record my progress as a woodworker. But what you don't see are the key people that have inspired me, challenged me, and helped me along my journey. Regrettably, one of those key influences is no longer with us.

-Neil, I just want to thank you for all the encouragement, passion, and inspiration you've given me over the years. You will be missed, but I hope your passion will continue to inspire others as it did for me.

The Woodcraft blog post honoring Neil