Syzygy Woodworks

August 16, 2010

Building a Flat Panel Door

A flat panel door can be defined as a door in which the panel has no bevel or hip raise. It can still be considered a five piece door, as it consists of two stiles, two frames and a panel. The stiles are the vertical members of the frame, while the rails are the horizontal members.

The first step is to mill the wood for the stiles and rails of the doors. I am building three doors for some base cabinets. All three doors are the same size and the cabinets will be painted white. I am using poplar for the frame of the door and 1/4″ plywood for the flat panel. The stiles and rails are 2 1/2″ wide, 3/4″ thick and I cut them an inch or so longer than what I needed. While I was preparing the wood I also took the time to make some scrap pieces the same width and thickness to be used for test cuts. You can also see my set up block in the picture. You can also see my raised panel router bit set. For this project I will only be using the two bits on the left, the monster raised panel bit will stay in the box.

Mount the bit for cutting the profile on one edge of the stile and rails. I use my set up block to adjust the height of the router bit, although I still plan on making some test cuts in scrap wood. The profile in both the stiles and rails will be cut with the face side (the outside of the door) down.

A close up shot of my set up block. I keep this in a drawer right next to my raised panel router bit set.

The fence is then moved so that it is flush with the bearing of the bit.

After routing a profile in a scrap piece of wood, I use the rail section of my set up block to see if the two surfaces meet flush on the top surface. I got lucky this time and the fit was perfect 🙂

I then routed the profile on one edge of all the stiles and rails. Remember the cuts are made with the show side down. For this project it was not that important as the doors will be painted, but if you are not painting the doors you will want to take care to chose the best side of each stile and rail and then to route it with that side down.

I then took the stiles to the table saw and used a cross cut sled cut them to length. To calculate this length I measure the height of the door opening and added 1 /4″. My crosscut sled was not quite wide enough to enable me to use its stop block, so I used a fence clamp and a block of wood as a stop block.

The next step was to calculate the length of the rails. I wanted the door to overlap the door opening by 5/8″ all round. The depth of the groove in the stiles was 3/8″. The width of the stiles was 2 1/2″. So the length of the stiles needed to be:

(Door opening width) + (2 times 5/8″) – (2 times 2 1/2″) + (2 times 3/8″)

To many years in school dealing with the metric system means that I suck at working with fractional inches, so I always reach for my handy ProjectCalc Plus at times like these!

The router bit for routing the sticks in the rails is mounted in the router table and set to height using the set up block. Again the fence is positioned so that it is flush with the bearing.

Remeber those scrap pieces of wood. Route the profile in the end of one of them. When making this cut it is important the the rail be kept flat on the table face down and that it remain at 90 degrees to the fence. It is also important that the cut be backed up to prevent tear out as you are routing end grain. There are a number of commercial rail coping jigs that will allow you to achieve this easily. I don’t have one, although every time I build some doors I promise to buy myself one. So what I normally end up doing is to cut a piece of 3/4″ plywood or mdf, making sure that one corner is a perfect 90 degrees. Then I use that sacrificial piece of plywood to hold the rail square to the fence and to back up the cut.

Satisified that the set up of the router bit was correct, I made the coping cut in all of the rails. Remember to make this cut with the face side of the rail down!!

Calculating the size of the panel is pretty simple. Measure the frame opening, then add for the 3/8″ groove all round and then subtract to allow for expansion. With a solid wood panel you would want to subtract at least 1/8″ all round. With the more stable plywood panel that I’m using I subtracted 1/16″ all round. The groove is 1/4″ wide so the undersize 1/4″ plywood fits pretty loose in the groove. However with a couple of coats of paint it should fit just right.

Test fitting the panel.

I like to paint the panel before gluing the door together. That way if there is any expansion of the frame then there won’t be any unfinished part of the panel exposed. This is probably more important with solid wood panels, but it is a good habit to get into.

When gluing the door together the panel is not glued into the groove. Glue is only applied to the coping cuts on the rails. The glue should be done on a flat surface so that the door will be flat and it should be checked for square. I really find the square check for tape measures useful when checking for square.

In closing, and before you head out to the shop to start making a set of doors, I invite you to review a previous post on router feed direction and bit rotation.

August 12, 2010

Installing shelf edgebanding

After drilling the shelf support pin holes, the next step was to prepare the cabinet shelving. As the cabinets are to be painted, I just use 3/4″ plywood for the shelves and apply iron on wood edging to the edges to conceal the raw edges.

I like to apply the edge banding to the sides of the shelf first, and then to the front and back of the shelf. It is a small touch, but it means the front edging is overlapping the side edging and so there is less chance of any joint being visible when viewing the installed shelving.

The first step is to secure the shelf in a vise. Then, using a pair of scissors cut a piece of edging about an inch longer than needed. I don’t have a dedicated iron for this job. Up till now I’ve managed to sneak my wife’s iron out to the workshop, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read this blog either so I think I’m safe! I set the iron to the “cotton” setting. That would be the hotter setting, although I’m not much of an expert when it comes to irons. Slowly move the iron over the edging so that the adhesive melts and sticks the edging to the shelf. As you do this make sure the edging overlaps the shelf slightly on each side. The edging is 13/16″ wide so you should have about a sixteenth overlap on each side of standard 3/4″ plywood.

Then, apply pressure to the edging using a veneer roller.

Using a pair of scissors, cut the edging on each side, leaving about an 1/8″.

Using a double edge trimmer, trim both edges flush to the plywood.

Using a veneer trimmer, square off the ends of the edging. This is a pretty expensive tool and for a long time I was reluctant to buy it and so used to use a utility knife for this part of the operation. I must admit that once I purchased the veneer trimmer I was pleased with how much cleaner the cuts were and how much quicker I was able to make the cuts.

The final step is to touch up the edges using some 220 grit sandpaper. I like to sand at a slight angle to put a small bevel on the edge.

The corner of the shelf once complete.

August 9, 2010

Shelf Pin Jig

I am busy working on a commission for a couple of base cabinets and a bookcase to be used as part of a TV display area. The cabinets require adjustable shelves which requires a quick and accurate way to drill/bore a series of holes on the inside walls of each cabinet, front and back. As each shelf sits on a pair of pins each side of the cabinet, the holes need to be level relative to each other for the shelf to be level. As with many things in woodworking, the best way to accomplish this consistency is with a jig.

A quick search on the internet for “drilling shelf pin holes” will result in many hits showing how to build and use a jig to drill the shelf pin holes using a hand held drill. There are even commercial jigs available. I prefer to use a plunge router to bore the holes. The work proceeds faster and the high speed of the router produces a cleaner hole. Also, as the weight of the router is supported by the workpiece, I find it less tiring than holding a drill. Often when drilling holes for shelf support pins you have to do a couple of hundred at a time, so these factors are important.

The jig that I use is made from a scrap piece of pine which I re-sawed and planed to 3/8″ thick. 1/2″ thick MDF or plywood would work just as well. The pine was ripped to 3 1/2″ wide and is just over 60″ long. A line was drawn down the middle of the board and then a series of marks at 2 1/2″ intervals were marked out along that line. The marks start and end approximately 9″ from each end of the board. A 3/8″ hole is then drilled at each mark and a slight counter sink at each hole. The counter sink is just to make it easier to locate the router collar in the hole. Take care to make sure the counter sink is not deeper than the depth of your collar, the collar needs to be supported by the walls of the 3/8″ hole.

Mark one end of the board “top” and the other end of the board “bottom”. This will make it easy to ensure that you are always referencing from the bottom of the cabinet wall. Then line the side of the jig up with the side of the cabinet wall and clamp it in place.

I use 1/4″ shelf pin supports, so I mount a 1/4″ spiral upcut bit in my router along with a 3/8″ collar. Set the plunge depth of the router so that the bit extends 3/8″ past the jig. Then it is just a matter of positioning the router collar in a hole in the jig and plunge routing a hole, repeat as necessary. I find the slight counter sink at each hole makes positioning the router quick and easy.

Once the line of holes at the front of the cabinet are drill, slide the jig to the back of the cabinet, making sure you are still referencing the bottom of the jig from the bottom of the cabinet, clamp it in place and bore the line of holes for the back of the cabinet.

December 21, 2009

Chuck Reversing Adapter

Every now and then I buy a tool/gadget that takes a time consuming process and just simplifies it. Yesterday I picked up a chuck reversing adapter from my local Woodcraft, and is it going to make life easy!

A chuck reversing adapter is used to take a turning that is mounted in a chuck on the headstock and rotate it and mount it on the tail stock so that you can align or center it correctly while mounting on a vacuum chuck or donut chuck prior to finishing the bottom of the piece. Or to put it more simply, it is a piece of metal with a morse taper on one side and a thread on the other that matches your chuck.

I normally don’t have any problems reversing a vessel with a wide rim, especially when using my donut chuck. However, for pieces with a narrow rim, like hollow forms, I have been struggling with alignment when reversing. The chuck reversing adapter has solved that. The following pictures illustrate how it is used.

Here is a hollow form that I’ve finished hollowing and am now ready to reverse and finish off the bottom. Without removing the piece from the chuck, I unscrew the chuck from the headstock and set it aside.

I then mount the back piece of my donut chuck to the headstock. You can see in the above image that I have attached a piece of scrap wood to the center and have turned it to a cone shape. Then I attached a couple of pieces of self adhesive fun foam. This cone will go into the mouth of the hollow form.

I then mounted the chuck reversing adapter into the tail stock and threaded the chuck onto it. Note, the chuck reversing adapter is not a live center! It does not rotate in the tail stock as it has no bearings. It is a temporary method to hold the chuck in the tail stock in alignment with the headstock. Don’t start the lathe with it in place, you’ll ruin your whole day!

The tail stock was then slid forward till the workpiece was almost touching the donut chuck. Then I locked the tail stock in place and advanced the spindle using the hand wheel until the workpiece was snug against the donut chuck, taking care not to crush it. The front piece of the donut chuck was then secured in place with the bolts.

I then loosened the chuck on the tenon of the hollow form, and withdrew the tail stock. The donut chuck held the piece securely and correctly aligned.

I then put a live center in the tail stock and brought it up to the work piece in order to turn the bulk of the tenon off, leaving just a small nub. It’s a good practice to support the work piece whenever you can using the tail stock.

The last little nub was removed with the tail stock out of the way and then the bottom of the piece was sanded.

December 15, 2009

Spindle and tenon gauge

I was getting tired of reaching for my calipers and setting them to my chuck diameter every time I needed to turn a tenon. The alternative was trying to “guesstimate” the diameter needed and very often I would turn the tenon to small. So I made a spindle and tenon gauge.

I have a set of forstner bits and they go from 1/4″ to 2 1/8″ diameter, in 1/8″ increments. I figured that while I was busy making the gauge, I might as well go ahead and include all these diameters.

I used a piece of 1/4″ hardboard. It was thicker than my parting tool, so I ran it through my drum sander a couple of times until it was just slightly thinner than my parting tool. This is probably not necessary for most applications, but I thought it may be useful occasionally when I wanted to make a parting cut in the middle of a piece and not have to widen it in order to insert the gauge.

Then I drew two lines down each side of the hardboard, just over one inch from each edge. I set my drill fence so the center of the forstner bit was positioned over one of the lines. Then, using a scrap piece of wood as a backer board, I started drilling holes, from big to small, down one side and up the other side.

When all the holes were drilled, I set my table saw fence to the line I had previously drawn, and with two passes, cut all the circles in half.

The gauge now hangs within easy reach of my lathe and is perfect for sizing tenons and checking spindle diameters. A quick, easy and cheap solution that makes my work flow at the lathe easier 🙂

If you have a hint or tip feel free to share in the comments section.

November 30, 2009

Dyeing for Color

A couple of months ago a demonstration at my woodturning club prompted me to start experimenting with dyes. Dyeing and coloring is one of those subjects that can be pretty intimidating. There are so many colors out there where do you start? Well, my first step was to buy myself a color wheel. I also spent some time researching what type of dyes to start with and eventually settle on TransTint Dyes. The next step was to decide which colors to buy. After looking at the number of colors available and the cost of the dyes, I decided that I would just buy the primary colors and black. I figured that with those colors I could mix any other color that I might want.

With that decision behind me I placed my order for a bottle of red, blue, green and black dyes. While waiting for the package to arrive I took a trip to Harbor Freight and got some 8oz squeeze bottles. I also went to Walgreens and got a small syringe for accurately measuring the dyes. If ever you want to feel like a crack addict, going to the drug store and asking for a small syringe will do that for you. Although they very kindly didn’t charge me for it, the kid at the pharmacy looked me over twice and also asked to see my drivers licensee before giving me the syringe!

The package of dyes arrived and, feeling like a mad chemist, I opened it up ready to start mixing. Well, who knew that green is not a primary color!!! I guess if I’d taken the time to really look at the color wheel I brought I might have know. Apparently the laws of physics/chemistry weren’t going to be changed just because I had brought the wrong color dye, so a trip to my local Woodcraft and I had a bottle of yellow dye to add to my collection. (“My local Woodcraft” is a relative term here involving a three hour return trip).

My plan was to mix up a “master” bottle of the three primary colors, red, yellow and blue, and then use those to mix up “master” bottles of the secondary colors, orange, green and violet. From these six colors, along with the black, I figured I could mix up any other color I wanted on a “as needed” basis.

TranTint dyes can be mixed with water or alcohol. They can also be added to common finishes including shellac, water based lacquer and polyurethane and most oil based finishes. I chose to mix the dye with a 50/50 solution of denatured alcohol and lacquer thinners. This would have the advantage of not raising the grain of the workpiece. The one disadvantage of doing this is that the solution dries very quickly after application. As you only get an idea of what the final color will look like when the dye is first applied and wet this does not allow for much time to see if the color is to your liking.

The dyes need to mixed in the following proportion, 1 oz of dye to 1 quart of water or alcohol. If you’re not interested in doing the math, this came to 7.5 ml of dye to be added to my 8 oz solution of alcohol and lacquer thinners.

November 25, 2009

Chatter Tool Results

I finally got a chance to play with the chatter tool I made. My initial experiments were pretty disappointing. The tool was “screeching” as it is supposed to, but I only seemed to be able to put spiral grooves on the test piece. My first thought was that the blade was not thick enough and I was getting too much “deflection” and not enough “chatter”. I had used on old jigsaw blade, so I took an old sawzall blade and cut and shaped that. Even though it was wider, and offer less give, I was still just getting spiral grooves.

So I took the two blades back to the grinder and ground a very slight bevel on the edges. More importantly I rounded over the point of the blade so that instead of coming to a sharp point it came to a blunt, slightly round point. Immediately I started to see improvements! Both the jig saw blade and the sawzall blade worked great, although they did produce different patterns.

There are no shortage of patterns you can get with the chatter tool. Whether any of them are repeatable is open to debate though! A number of variables affect the pattern.

The amount of the blade sticking out the tool.
The distance from the tool rest to the work piece.
The speed of the lathe.
How hard you push the tool into the work piece.
How quickly you move the cutting edge across the work piece.
How many times you move the cutting edge across the work piece.
The angle the cutting edge is presented.

The image below shows some examples. I colored the patterns with a black permanent marker so they would show better in the image.

A chatter tool is used primarily in end grain, so applications include embellishments on box lids, spinning tops etc. The chatter tool will work better on hardwoods than softwoods.

After spending an hour or so playing with the tool, I feel the most important variables are lathe speed and distance of the tool rest from the work piece. For the most part the tool is presented so that the blade is horizontal and the handle is closer to you than the blade. The tool rest is about 4 to 6″ from the workpiece and lathe speed is around 1000 rpm. The blade is pushed into the wood and then pulled from the center to the edge. Rotating the tool slightly counter clockwise will change the pattern achieved, but it will also cause the tool to move towards the edge of the work piece a lot faster!! I found lathe speeds between 750 and 1800 worked with an optimum range between 1000 and 1200.

November 22, 2009

Al Hockenbery Demo

Last weekend our woodturning club, North Florida Woodturning Association, had the good fortune of hosting Al Hockenbery and his wife Sherry for a demonstration and hands on session. The demonstration was an all day demo on Saturday and the hands on session, with six of the club members was on Sunday.

To see some of Al and Sherry’s work you can visit their website at Hockenbery Woodturnings.

Al was a great demonstrator! He both informed and entertained. Edutainment at it’s best. One of the things I really enjoyed was that he shared many hints and tips as he demonstrated that were not necessarily part of the demo, but an opportunity in the demo arose where he was able to segue and share more of his woodturning experience.

He demonstrated a number of pieces to us, including a natural edge bowl, rough turning a large salad bowl, a natural edge hollow form and his “ball in a ball”.

Shaping the outside of a natural edge hollow form

Holding a wooden ball for hollowing using a Strata Chuck

Hollowing the wooden ball so that a golf ball can be inserted

November 12, 2009August 28, 2019

Homemade Chatter Tool

I’ve been wanting to try some different embellishment techniques, one of which was chatter work. However I kept on balking at the price of a new chatter tool. I decided to make my own. It cost me $3.00 and a hour or two on a Sunday afternoon.

I got a 1/2″ x 10″ nipple from the plumbing department at the home improvement store, along with a 3/4″ long 1/4 20 bolt. The rest of the materials I used were in the shop already including a used jigsaw blade.

I mounted the pipe between centers on the lathe and after a bit of sanding it was nice and shiny. I then cut the threads off one end and drilled and tapped a 1/4 20 thread about 3/4″ back from that end.

The next step was to mount a cherry pen blank in a chuck and turn it down to 1/2″ so that if fit inside the pipe. I only turned down the first couple of inches, and then put it in a vise and cut it lengthwise. This off cut was then glued into the pipe with CA glue, the bolt served as a clamp.

After turning the block of wood to be used as a handle round, I drilled it to fit the the OD of the pipe. Unfortunately, the OD of the pipe was around 13/16″ and the only forstner bits I had were 3/4″ and 7/8″. So I drilled with the 3/4″ and then widened the hole using a square edge scraper until the pipe fit inside. The image below show the handle shaped and sanded, just prior to being parted off.

I’m playing with dyes at the moment, so I applied a red dye to the handle and then a couple of coats of shellac. While I was waiting for the shellac to dry, I ground the teeth off the jigsaw blade, shaped the point of the blade and bent it as in the image below.

The completed tool, ready for testing! Did I mention how nice and shiny it is!

I’ll show some pictures in a future post of the results from the tool. I also have a couple more jig saw blades and some sawzall blades. I plan on experimenting a bit with the different blades and profiles and see what sort of results I get.

If you’ve made a chatter tool let me know what type of blade and profile you got the best results with by posting a comment. Thanks.

November 8, 2009

Uphill and downhill – cutting with the grain on a lathe

Uphill or downhill. Cutting with the grain or against the grain. Understanding how the grain is orientated on the lathe and which direction to cut in order to get the smoothest cuts possible can be confusing.

Brian Clifford has a great article on his site The Woodturners Workshop which illustrates these concepts very clearly. Here is an brief extract from the article. To read the full article please visit Brian’s site here.

7.1 Introduction

In the previous chapter, in thinking about the way the tool cuts, three important factors were temporarily ignored. These are :

the question of grain and its direction

the rotation of the work-piece

the fact that the cutting edge is often held at an angle to the direction in which the wood is moving (the slicing cut)

7.2 The concept of grain

The cells of the wood, which take the form of hollow cylinders, join together to form strands of fibres which lie in a uniform direction which is more or less axial either to the trunk or to its offshoots. The lay of the fibres is commonly referred to as the ‘grain’.

Diagram 7.1 Primary forms of cutDiagram 7.1 shows a block of wood in which the grain is running longitudinally. Three tools are shown as if about to make cuts in the directions indicated by the arrows. These illustrate the three primary forms of cut; as defined in the common expressions of:

cutting along the grain (A);

cutting across the grain (B);

cutting end grain (C).

In practice of course, particularly in woodturning, there is an infinite range of variations on these cuts. Not only can any number of intermediate positions between those shown be taken up but the edge of the tool does not necessarily have to be held at 90 degrees to the direction in which the wood is moving. It should be noted that in Diagram 7.1 the wood is assumed to be stationary and the tool to be moving. Often, in woodturning both the wood and the tool are moving, but with the wood moving faster than the tool. For the purposes of analysis, in this particular context, this does not matter; all that we are concerned with here is the movement of the wood and the cutting edge in relation to each other.

7.3 Cutting along the grain

Anybody who has worked wood with a hand plane will know that it is desirable to plane with the grain. Diagram 7.2 illustrates the common situation in which the fibres of the wood lie at an angle to the edges of the wood block.

Diagram 7.2 Planing with and against the grainWhen the wood is planed with the grain any splitting between the fibres takes place above and in front of the cutting edge, which subsequently severs the fibres neatly, so leaving a clean surface, as shown in Diagram 7.3.

Diagram 7.3 Cutting with the grain
Based on: Bruce Hoadley, Understanding Wood, The Taunton Press (1980) – p150

If an attempt is made to plane against the grain the cutting edge picks up the ends of the fibres, lifting them out of the wood, so that they break off in an irregular manner leaving a rough finish. This is illustrated in Diagram 7.4.

Diagram 7.4 Cutting against the grain
Based on: Bruce Hoadley, Understanding Wood, The Taunton Press (1980) – p150