St. John's Pulpit

My good friend, Father Glenn Miller, is currently serving at St. John's Episcopal Church in Lancaster. He came to me recently with an interesting problem concerning the church's historic pulpit:

While a stunning example of the woodworker's art, the desk of the pulpit was stuck in a previous century - it was too small to hold an 8-1/2 x 11" sheet of paper:

An Amazing Coincidence (Zuckermann Harpsichord Visit)

Way back in 1995, I spent a weekend at Zuckermann Harpsichords in Stonington, Connecticut, at a seminar on building their harpsichord kits. I had already ordered their "French Single" kit, and wanted some expert instruction. It must have worked, because three years later I completed this:

It turned out to be a marvelous instrument, with a deep, rich bass and good tuning stability. Mary Ellen played it for several years in the Allegro Chamber Orchestra.

Dealing With Drawer Slides

In my recent second post about my new rolling drill press table (link), I stated that there would be a part three, in which I added a drawer base to the table. I made the base, but it's just a bit boring and straightforward to actually write about. But during that process, I decided that I would figure out once and for all how to space drawer slides without a lot of trial and error. This photo from the rolling cart (link) for small parts and fasteners that I made for Make717 will show the issues involved:

Drill Press Table, Part 2

In Part 1 of this saga, I detailed how I had spent hours milling quarter-sawn lumber from 2 X 12 framing lumber for a bottom-weighted rolling table for my drill press, and the pluses and minuses of the technique I chose. Now, let's use that stock to build the table, starting with the legs. They have open mortises at top and bottom to create what is called a bridle joint. This one is unusual because the joint is so wide - six and a half inches. Here are two legs done, and two more in clamps after gluing:

Drill Press Table, Part 1

I've had a multi-year goal of getting all the equipment at the Grant St. Garage on wheels. It just makes it so much easier to rearrange and clean up. I've made good progress, probably averaging one piece of equipment per year, but I've always dragged my feet about doing it for my drill press. The reason is that it's so top-heavy. It would be very easy to make a dangerous situation while trying to move it.

Recently, I noticed a plan from ShopNotes magazine that solves the problem in a way that's obvious in retrospect:  add a lot of weight at the bottom to counteract the heavy drill press head at the top. Here's a photo from their plan (from Issue 38, apparently now available only on DVD):

Make717 Lathe Cabinet

I've written several posts previously about the Make717 makerspace, a local group of which I'm a member. The makerspace, in space donated by Thaddeus Stevens College, brings together a lot of different equipment that would be expensive to purchase for a home shop: metalworking lathe and mill, 3D printers, laser cutters, CAD workstations, an extensive electronics bench, and more. I've been involved with the group since almost the beginning, and have made a few pieces of shop furniture for them (a workbench and a pair of hardware cabinets that took four blog posts: 1, 2, 3, 4).

Now, I've taken on a project involving a tiny Sherline lathe. It's a fine piece of equipment!

A Big Step

This summer at Lancaster Church of the Brethren, we undertook a big project. We just didn't know how big it was going to become when we started! In conjunction with having professionals replace the carpet in the sanctuary, our project was to extend the depth of a few steps in the Chancel area up front, and remove one row of pews from the front of the sanctuary in order to improve space.

We were very fortunate that Wayne Stauffer, a retired contractor and new member of our congregation, agreed to be the project manager for the step modifications. His plan, which worked perfectly, was to extend each step by adding carefully cut construction lumber in sufficient quantity to extend the tread depth from 10.5 inches to 15 inches. Those modified steps would then be carpeted along with the rest of the sanctuary.

Make717 Hardware Caddy Part 3: One More Prototype

In Part 2, I detailed how to mount those drawer slides on the thin plastic sides of a Stanley hardware organizer. Now, it was time to make one more prototype to check that everything is going to work right. I made it out of cheap MDF (medium density fiberboard), but I used the same joinery techniques I plan to use on the real thing. Here's the finished prototype:

Make717 Hardware Caddy Part 2: Mounting Drawer Slides on a Plastic Organizer

In the first post in this series, I detailed how we used an iterative design process for a set of cabinets for plastic organizer bins. The chosen design mounts drawer slides directly to the bin, which requires several components and some modifications. This second post details how to do it in a step-by-step fashion. It's not easy reading, but I hope it will help someone else duplicate our work.

The final result looks like this:

Make717 Hardware Caddy Part 1: The Power of Prototypes

My friends at our local Makerspace, Make717, asked me to help with an organization project. Among the assets of the group, we have a number of these Stanley hardware organizers in two different heights. They are super useful for storing hardware, small electronic components, and more. This stock photo is from this link on Amazon:

Every Shop Needs a Milling Machine

The Grant St. Garage has a rather complete set of woodworking tools, but they are usually the cheaper version, often bought used, and that sometimes makes for compromises. My Delta 12" planer is a good example. This little benchtop machine has planed thousands of feet of lumber without complaint, and it works great. But when it was designed, chip collection was not a big part of the equation. Delta did offer a bent sheet metal attachment, and I bought it to hook to my dust collector. It works more or less adequately, but its design is poor compared to more modern equipment like the Dewalt 13" benchtop planer.

Anyway, today I noticed that the duct had pulled loose on one side. The thin metal, held by a pair of tiny wing nuts, was just not up to the task.

An Expensive Lesson

I violated a rule a couple of weeks ago. I didn't even know it was a rule until after the fact, when Phil Oles acquainted me with it. It's called the "Three Tooth Rule," and it basically says, "when cutting, make sure you have at least three saw teeth in the material at any time."

I found out that if you violate the rule, you are liable to have two simultaneous outcomes:

1. A loud bang.
2. Broken parts.

Sadly, the broken parts were on one of my most prized tools, my Bosch compound miter saw:

A Bench for the Makerspace

A few months ago, Bruce Schreiner of the Make717 group asked me if I'd make a small workbench for the group's Innovation Center makerspace. I agreed, and over the past couple of months worked on the bench. It's done! Here's the finished product:

Deferred Maintenance

I have read of woodworkers who spend the first 30 minutes of each shop session on tool maintenance. Predictably, their chisels and planes are always sharp, everything is always put away, and their major machines are in perfect adjustment. But the rest of us... well, we use things until they work so poorly that we have no choice but to take time to maintain them. My jointer was like that:

Dissecting a Disaster

I think all of the regular readers of this blog already know that I had a serious accident in the workshop recently. Don't worry - I'm not about to show you medical-grade photos of my hand. But for the sake of completeness for those who stumble across this post, here's the outline of the damage:

Wine Rack, Part 6 - Done!

After nine months of intermittent work and many interruptions for other projects, the wine rack is finally done, and installed in our kitchen:

Wine Rack, Part 5

I just checked: the last post on the wine rack project was way back on Nov 6, 2014. In that post, I postulated that the fifth and final post would be in January. Hoo boy - I sort of missed that one! This blog has detailed the four or five other projects that took precedence in the ensuing months. This is part five of, I sincerely hope, six for the wine rack. I won't be so bold as to predict when that sixth post will occur...

Christmas, finally

Christmas came a little late for Mary Ellen this year. Well, that's not exactly true, since she did have a pile of presents to open on Christmas Day! But, her "big" present just wasn't ready in time. Now it's done, and her response was just what the hubby would hope: "I LOVE my new under-cabinet lights! They look great!" Here's the final product:

Homecoming

Nearly 20 years ago, I decided that I needed to build a harpsichord from a kit. There were two major harpsichord kit manufacturers in the US, Hubbard and Zuckerman. Both companies are still in business now, and still have a variety of kits to build. I decided on Zuckerman, and Mary Ellen and I spent a weekend in Stonington, CT, so I could attend a two-day seminar on building the kit.

It took me about three years to build, but it turned out to be a fine instrument, one that we used for a number of years with Allegro Chamber Orchestra. Here's a photo of Mary Ellen at the harpsichord in 2005:

Sharon's Cabinet

Every once in a while, I'll take on a project even though I have some mental reservations. This was one of those! Bob Zimmerman, the superb electrician who rewired the entire Grant St. Garage, asked if I would look at a cabinet that his wife Sharon bought at auction, for the princely sum of one dollar. He said, "I just want you to put a back on it."

Well, Bob has done a lot for me, including using his MIG welder to un-stick a seriously stuck bolt in the Z3 Coupe (link). I said OK, and decided I could make the cabinet better, at least. It was "rustic" at best, having lived in a barn for many years. We agreed that I would try to make it structurally sound and useable, while leaving the rustic exterior untouched. Bob said that they might put it in their kitchen as additional storage.