A Frame for the Season Tree

We are very lucky to have a family friend who is as generous as she is artistic. Earlier this year she was kind enough to paint us a "season tree" spanning four individual 12"x12" canvases. In order to do the painting justice and display it properly my wife asked if I could build a custom frame. We decided on walnut to match the color palette of the artwork and because I was itching to dig into the stash of beautiful wide walnut I picked up last fall. 

Lex helped me get started by picking out one of the smaller boards from the stack and cutting it down to rough length by hand.

The board was over 14" wide and she tired out about half way through so I took over with Eli's help while Lex photographed the process.

The board we selected had a decent sized crack down the center so we split it the full length and then laid out reference lines along the grain to yield nice straight grained stock for the long narrow pieces of the frame. With the kids back in the house I then ripped the pieces along those lines and jointed the cut edges.

I then flattened and thicknessed the stock and ripped the opposite edge parallel to the reference edge. These two pieces will yeild the 4 outside rails and 2 inner dividers.

I did some head scratching to figure out the best way to create the rabbets on the frame edge pieces while leaving a very narrow ~1/8" overhang on the front face. I ended up ripping the larger piece in half and then ripping a slot along each of the 4 resulting edges.

An outer frame piece was then cut from each side. The thin strip remaining along the edge will be removed later.

The inner dividers were also a bit tricky in that the final pieces needed to end up as a 1" tall by 1/2" wide "T" shape with each leg being just a bit over 1/8" thick. In order to create this shape and also ensure that the stock was safe to work later on while cutting the joinery I used a similar technique to the edge pieces and ripped a pair of slots along each edge of the workpiece to define the center section of the "T" shape.

The individual dividers were then cut free from the larger piece.

The next step was to miter the outer edges so I dialed in the miter gauge and set a stop block to ensure all 4 pieces end up the exact same length.

Here you can see from the rear view of a corner of the frame how the rabbets will be created when the thin strips of scrap are removed from the inside edges, leaving only the 1/8" thick front face to cover the edge of the canvas.

A test fit proved that the miter joints were good with all 4 corners meeting nice and tight.

After planing the show surfaces smooth I then used a marking gauge to scribe a line where the thin scrap piece will be removed.

This piece was then cut free with a few whacks with a wide chisel. The rough surface was then cleaned up with a shoulder plane.

In order to ensure nice tight miter joints when gluing up the frame I decided to add 45 degree glue blocks to each corner. This allows a clamp to be applied directly across the miter to ensure a good tight joint. It is a bit of work to prep the glue blocks, glue them on the day before the frame glue-up, and then remove them afterwards but it makes the glue-up process easier and the results are worth the extra effort.

A few dabs of glue and 4 clamps later and the frame was glued up. Time to move onto the joinery for the dividers.

Each divider is joined to the outside pieces of the frame with a form of bridle joint, essentially a through mortise and tenon with the bottom side open. I started fitting these joints by cutting a slot in the dead center of each outside piece that was half the depth of the piece and as wide as the bottom leg of the "T" shaped dividers was thick. I then trimmed off the top half of one end of the divider piece so that it fit into the slot. I then marked the top of the "T" where it met the overhang along the edge piece so that it could be chiseled away to form one end of the joint.

With one end complete I marked the other end with a knife and repeated the same procedure. Below you can see how the top of the "T" is preventing the divider from seating all the way into the slot.

Here is a detail shot showing how the top of the "T" was marked with a knife and trimmed away with a chisel. Here you can also see that I left the scrap pieces on the "T" making it more of a flat topped "M" shape so that it was stable enough to run over the table saw later.

Below you can see the second side of the joint coming together nice and tight. It is amazing how accurate you can be when working to a knife line.

With the joints fitted to connect each divider to its outer two edges individually it was time to focus on joining them together in the center of the frame. This process started with removing the side scraps from the center section of each divider. This allowed me to fit these joints while again leaving a stable square piece to run over the table saw.

I started this joint by laying both dividers in place aligned with their edge joints and marking the location of a slot in the top face of the lower piece. I then cut this slot to half the depth of the divider on the table saw and test fit the pieces as shown below. This allowed me to mark the exact location of the slot that needed to be cut in the bottom half of the top piece. With both slots cut the top divider dropped down until the top of the "T" rested on the top of the bottom divider. I then scribed along those edges with a knife to mark the section of the bottom piece that needs to be removed. This may sound complicated but it was actually very simple to execute.

With the top of the "T" marked out I removed most of the waste with the table saw leaving just a bit of wood inside of the knife lines which I then cleaned up with a chisel.

This was the most critical joint of the whole project and any slop or error would result in a gap with no reasonable option to fix it. In the end the process of overlaying the mating pieces and marking them out directly with knife lines paid off and the joint came together with a nice tight friction fit.

With the joinery done I shifted to prepping the frame for final glue-up and finishing. I removed the bulk of the corner glue blocks at the bandsaw.

I then trimmed away the rest with the block plane and a few final passes with the smoother.

I had been handling the frame quite a bit while working on the joinery and the glued miter joints were nice and solid but I don't trust them over the long run so I decided to add some reinforcing splines across the corners. I slapped together a quick and dirty jig allow me to cut the slots for these splines on the table saw. Note that you want to use a flat top grind rip blade for this to ensure the resulting saw kerf has a flat bottom rather than the jagged corners left by most combination or crosscut blades.

Here you can see an example of the flat bottomed slot cut across the corners.

I finished up this step by planing down some scraps of walnut to fit snugly into these slots and glued them in.

Next I glued in the center dividers one at a time using a pipe clamp to pull the joints nice and tight.

Once the glue was dry I trimmed off the corner splines and protruding sections at the divider joints with the bandsaw and planed everything flush. 

After a bit of cleanup work with the smooth plane, card scraper, and just a few strokes with some 220 sandpaper the frame was ready for finish. I wiped on 3 coats of shellac, sanding before the final coat, and topped it off with some paste wax buffed in with a scotchbrite pad.

I considered a few options for mounting the canvases to the frame but ended up settling on hot glue. It may not be how this is normally done but it was simple, reversible, and seems to be holding up well so far.

My low light cell phone photography leaves a lot to be desired but I'm really happy with how the end result turned out. The painting is gorgeous and I think the simple walnut frame compliments it well without getting in the way.

In terms of board feet of lumber used this is one of the smallest projects I've done to date but the small delicate joinery was a lot of fun. This project took me just over a month to complete which is pretty quick by my standards. My final observation was that walnut is absolutely wonderful to work with. I am very excited to finish up Lex's oak bookshelf that has been dragging on since late last summer and then shift gears to focusing on the walnut bed the wife has requested.

Moxon Twinscrew Vise

Back in December Enco had a deal on acme threaded rod and nuts that pushed me over the edge to build a Moxon twinscrew vise. The hardware doesn't get much cheaper and this seemed like a good little project to force me to get out into the freezing shop for an hour or two at a time. My friends Lon and Mark joined in to make this a group build and we pooled our order to save a few more bucks on shipping and to take advantage of the fact that each 36" acme rod can be cut down to build two vises. In the end we paid right around $20 for each kit consisting of a pair of 3/4"x9" rods and a set of 6 nuts. 

We ended up following the basic design outlined in the plans that Benchcrafted provides for their much nicer but also much more expensive hardware.

 

The design is based on 8/4 thick stock so I picked through my stack of oak 2x12's and found one that would yield the 6"x24" and 6"x32" pieces needed for the vise jaws as well as a shorter square piece for the back support piece. Breaking down and milling this stock in the unheated 20 degree shop wasn't ideal but cold woodworking is better than no woodworking.

The only real design challenge during this project was figuring out what to do for the handwheels that operate the vise. The Benchcrafted kit comes with some really sweet cast iron wheels but since we were doing this on the cheap we looked into a few other options. We considered ordering some basic handwheels from Enco or Grizzly and drilling and tapping them to match the 3/4-6 acme threads but it turns out acme taps are really expensive. In the end we settled on using extra nuts with wooden wheels for handles.

I setup a quick circle cutting jig out of a scrap of MDF with a nail through it and then moved on to prepping two 5"x5" square blanks. I drilled a small hole through the blank to center it on the jig and also to center the other holes that will be drilled later.

I found out by trial and error that the circle cutting jig worked much better if I rough cut the circle free hand close to the final diameter and then cut the last 1/8" or so on the jig.

I eased the edges of each circle with a chamfer bit in the router. It may not be a textbook technique but since the pieces were small I ended up clamping the router in my leg vise and using it like a mini router table. I was very careful and tried this out with some scraps first. In the end it worked well and wasn't half as scary as it looks.

I missed pictures of the last few steps to complete the handwheels but it was pretty straightforward. I drilled a 3/8" deep 1-1/4" hole that with some chisel work will house the nut, then drill the rest of the way through the wheel with a 3/4" bit to create the clearance hole for the acme rod. After chiseling out the mortises for the nuts I epoxied them into the handwheels.

We ended up getting together in Mark's heated shop to work on the rest of the vise. We started by marking the center locations for the pair of holes in the front and back jaws and then again drilling the larger hole for the nut followed by a 3/4" clearance hole for the rod in the back jaw and then an elongated 3/4" clearance hole in the front jaw. The elongated hole in the front allows the jaw the freedom to rack diagonally which makes opening and closing the jaw easier and also allows the vise to clamp odd shapes.

Above you can see the corners of the nut knifed in ready for chiseling and below you can see the end result with the nut fitted into the jaw.

The next step was to glue the back support onto the rear jaw. Once the glue was dry I planed the two pieces flush to ensure the vise sits flat and stable on the workbench.

I elected to cover the inside of both the front and rear jaw with leather and ended up finding a perfect 12"x24" leather split on eBay for about $13 shipped. I cut the pieces to rough size and then glued them on with contact cement.

I sandwiched the the vise together with a piece of waxed paper between the two leather faces and used the handwheels as well as a few extra clamps to apply the pressure needed to get a good bond.

After a bit of planing and sanding I finished the vise with two coats of a blend of equal parts oil based poly, boiled linseed oil, and mineral spirits.

The vise clamps down to the edge of the benchtop with a pair of holdfasts on the back support. I am very impressed with how firmly the vise grabs with just a small turn of the handwheels.

I wasn't sure how well the cobbled together handwheels would work but in the end I'm pretty happy with them. The wheels operate smoothly and can be run in or out quickly with a few spins.

This was a fun little winter project and I am looking forward to putting it to work once we get some warmer weather. It will clamp boards up to 24" wide and the fact that it raises the work about 6" off the benchtop surface will eliminate or minimize the need to hunch over to saw or do other detail work.

Looking for info on an old saw

I picked up this old saw a year or two ago. It is a 5-1/2 point saw with a very nice old handle. It has a warranted superior medallion and the etch contains the words "Bluegrass Extra Quality" with a W and the words trade mark in the center. I searched around the web but wasn't able to find much info on the Bluegrass name that seemed relevant. I finally took some pictures and figured I would post them and see if the guys over at WoodNet can tell me anything about it.

Take a look at the pictures and let me know if you have any idea how old it is and/or whether it is worth cleaning it up and getting it re-sharpened... or using it as a guinea pig to learn to re-sharpen saws myself.