This week, I managed to finish my stepladder and, although there were some hurdles, and it is not quite perfect, it looks good and works well – I am pleased with the final result.
I am now moving on to the deck beam exercise, and the angled dovetail, complete with its ‘flair’ is taxing my grey cells. Here’s the start, with mock gunwales set into a jig, and the fist beam, cut and shaped, ready to start the joints.
We have to fit three beams, and the last one is marked for the City & Guilds qualification. Hopefully, I will finish this in the coming four day week – an extension to our 12 week joinery course, which finished on Friday with the awarding of certificates! Because we have got the first week of June off, it has been decided that we will move from joinery to the boathouse itself on 10th June.
The Gang of Six, with Mark, our Instructor in the middle.
The main news and the biggest joy of the week was the safe arrival on Monday of Lily, our second grandchild. Siobhan and David are very proud parents – rightly so. She is a beautiful baby, just as her mother (and no-doubt her maternal grandmother) was. Both she and Siobhan are doing well, and Noah is very pleased with his new baby sister …
With the tool chest completed, I have been ‘moving on’ to other projects. Here is an update on my work to date.
If we have time, we are due to make a stepladder. Not everyone starts or completes this project during their 12 weeks in Joinery, but that’s the goal (and a deck beam to boot). The stepladder has a fold down platform and, to get a bit of boatbuilding joinery in on the act, the platform is made up of a grating – like on the cabin sole of a yacht – or a shower tray!
Lots of joints and a need for accuracy, but the result is very pleasing. “So sharp, you’d better be careful not to cut yourself,” was the pleasing comment from the head of the school, Barnaby.
Rails fitted (mortice & tenon joints); birds beak mortices cut in the frame ends, ready to fit the stiles. With rails held together in the vice, my super duper router plane came into its own once again. A gift from Sylvia, it is a lot less noisy, messy and dangerous than what people usually think of as a router!My grating – just needs a quick sanding and the corners will be rounded later when I come to fitting it into the stepladder.
Next a bollow plane. A bollow is used to hollow! We will use it to shape the blades of oars. Chiselling out the recesses was quite tricky!
We will be making spars later, so have made a spar gauge, which is used to mark lines along the spar, in order to help us plane it from a square section of timber into a round one. More on that in due course. For now, here’s the finished article.
Last, but not least, we have to make a spirit level. This was a really satisfying little piece, and I am pleased with the result, duly stained … with Peacock oil, no less!
With these smaller projects duly completed, I am pleased to report that I have started my stepladder today. A couple of the lads are a day or two ahead of me, and have found it really challenging, so I hope it doesn’t throw up too many difficulties and I can make good progress.
My, how time flies! Lots to report, but first, an update on my Tool Chest.
After getting the lid adjusted to the base with no gaps, it was time to get the hinges on, and the weather strip fitted.
I made a cock up when fitting the weather strip, by positioning the screw holes for the weather strip on the back of the box in line with the screws on the tray rail below. Looked great, except, I had already done the same for the lid rest, and now the new holes were overlapping the screws for the lid rest. I had to move the screws for the lid rest and fill the original holes, so that I could re-drill holes for the weather strip. Argh!
Thankfully, some good came of my mistake as Bob, one of the Instructors, showed me how to plug the holes effectively and efficiently with wooden pegs quickly fashioned with a sharp chisel. A trick that will no-doubt be useful in future – in fact I have already passed it on to one of the other students who did the same thing on one of his screw holes.
Time to fit the lock … and another own goal. With the lock fitted, the lid now sat slightly askew. The link plate in the lid was 1mm off to the left, forcing the lid to the right when closed.
I had marked it correctly, but not believed the markings, so had cut just off the line. I cursed my distrust of my markings, and spent a goodly time getting it righted. Lesson learnt – I hope – as it will be even more important not to distrust my markings when I move onto spiling planks (marking out for planking a hull), where complex curves in there dimensions can become straightened when in two dimensions … challenges to come!
Now, the escutcheon. I took a piece of an African hardwood, Wenge, made a key hole and fashioned it into a diamond shape. Having marked its position, I cut out a rebate for the escutcheon and fitted it in. Rather than chamfer it and leave it proud, I decided to flush it with the surface of the box, and am very pleased with the result.
My first bit of inlay work!
The wooden handle blocks were next, and my tool chest just needs some tool trays. These trays and a smaller sliding lid box were made from a soft wood. Cutting the dovetails is in some ways more difficult than in hard wood. Though it cuts easily, the wood crushes and marks very easily.
Softwood sliding lid box – remind anyone of pencil boxes of yesteryear?
My Tool Chest – with sliding tool trays in place.
So, my Tool Chest is pretty much complete. I just need to give it another quick sanding, and then will apply a finish. Rather than varnish, I am going to use an oil and wax finish – Peacock Oil no less – made by Shane Skelton of Skelton saws. (https://www.skeltonsaws.co.uk/peacock-oil). Not sure how much I needed, I rang Skelton saws on Good Friday, planning to leave a message, but ended up speaking with Shane, interrupting his gardening. He very kindly gave me a quick tutorial over the phone, and said that one 250ml bottle will suffice. I hope so, at £24.00 a bottle! At least it’s cheaper than his saws.
This last week, Week 10, has been another short week due to 1st May Bank Holiday, but in these four days I have completed two other projects and will finish a third tomorrow. I have some photos to upload first, so will post again asap.
