Wood 'n' Soul

I went to the monthly contractors’ breakfast this morning. The main topic was about mold: how to detect it, how to eliminate it and the problems associated with some of the scarier stuff. Because of the potential for high dollar litigation, this can be a very expensive issue. It can be a very serious problem, and there is a lot of hype and fear associated with it - largely unfounded according to the biologists that talked this morning - difficult to find the real facts from pseudo-facts. If one catches it in the early stages, it is a very simple problem to resolve.

Fortunately for me and the things I build, mold and the problems associated with it aren't much of an issue. Plain old everyday wood mold - which is on most construction lumber, is completely harmless and I don’t see much of that even. The talk made me glad I’m not a general contractor with that 10 year liability for it!! Still a very interesting morning.

The had an infrared camera there - cost about $20,000 and they passed it around for us to see [don't know that I would have had the stones to do that, but I know the folks better than they did I guess]. It was really cool to use it - looked at a couple of my buddies with the infrared - weird looking at people with it - one could easily see the warm and cool spots on people's bodies. They took a barely wet sponge and wiped a couple of places on the wall and it was very visible with the camera. Still, I liked looking at the people best.

I glued up the second sample panel today - using Domino, of course. It makes for superior joinery in a jiffy! After I pulled the panel out of the clamps, it only took a few minutes to sand to 220 grit - just about ready for a seal coat - the alignment was nearly perfect. Here you see it clamped to my MFT for sanding.


It needs to be trimmed to final size. Then I’ll put a seal coat on in the morning and maybe even get a coat or two of topcoat on tomorrow. I think we do about 5 coats for this sample.

I took the warped and racked wood back to my supplier, who, without question, replaced it. I rough cut it and let it sit most of the day and... it hasn't moved yet.

I cut some rails and stiles for the second sample door and am letting them sit overnight before I put it together.

I used my Domino to mortises the end pieces. Using the Trim Stop, I set it up to cut the mortises offset from center. A piece of work that would have taken quite a while to set up and do with my router was done in about 3 minutes with Domino and the trim stop - making end mortises is actually a trivail exercise now. I find more and more ways to use it.

I'll have some pix tomorrow - I'm fighting off a cold tonight - yuk!

I got some wood - birch and mahogany, today. I rough cut it to size and laid it on my work/assembly table and went up and did some paper work. When I came down this afternoon - it was racked, cupped and warped beyond usability.

My supplier is only about 10 miles from here and the wood is supposedly kiln dried. I called him and he will, of course, take it back. But it is disturbing to see this and it happens more often today.

One needs to let the wood rest for a while and see how it is going to move. Better on my work bench - or yours, than on a clients furniture or cabinets.

This is a picture of the two different door options for the kitchen cabinets. The difference is the rails and stiles - narrower or wider. Both are flush panels, which Domino helped make flush with an ease I’ve not experienced before.

The handles are mahogany - looks very nice with the birch, IMO.


Which do you like?

My customers chose the one on the right -- door number 2, if you will. I’m now making a match for it for a sample door that I will hang on the cabinets. That way they can live with the design for a bit and make sure they really like it before I make all the rest.

They’ve had the old ones for nearly 40 years, so the new ones are going to be a real different look and feel. They are much lighter and will, I think, give the kitchen a much airier and more open feel, and it will look very different from today.

Finish is a hand rubbed satin urethane - about 6 coats. Looks very rich.

I’m making some new cabinet doors and drawers for some great folks down in Sebastopol. They have a beautiful custom redwood home, made back when the growth rings on the redwood were very close together -- good stuff.

We are doing the cabinet doors and drawers out of birch - very soft and creamy looking! And we’ll use, likely mahogany, for the pulls.

Here you can see the pieces after they have seasoned at my shop for a few days. I have just planned them for initial thicknessing - final will be done the old fashioned way - with my hand plane.


While I am a bit of a neanderthal, I do use the latest joining system from FesTool. We’ve become quite enamored of all the great things that Domino can do, and it is easy to lose sight of how very well and how fast it does the task of basic edge joining.

A quick pencil marking layout for Domino.


The mortises on the ends are cut using the tight setting, the interior ones using the second “loose” setting to allow for expansion and fitting.


Here you can see the pieces in the process of being glued up.

One of the joints has already been made, the other has the tenons fit in and glue applied. Note how sparing the glue is on the end tenons - we don’t want to get hydrolock and these tenons fit very precisely.

And the last frame shows the door piece in the clamps. I’ll use a chisel in about an hour to clean off the squeeze out [I was a little more generous with the glue than usual on this one].


One of the things I really like about Domino is how accurately the wood is positioned. The precision makes for really nice looking panels with a minimum of finish work.

I truly cruised along making this bench with Domino - even allowing for my novice status with Domino. It isn’t a particularly hard project without Domino - just time consuming with all the m & t work, a bit tricky making the mortises for the bench top through tenons, mostly a layout issue. With Domino, it is really a simple task - making the mortise and tenon joints is almost trivial. It’s precision allows you a real freedom in making strong joints quickly and easily - even with a first timer like me.

I showed making the m & t for the leg gussets in my earlier posts. Here I made the mortises on the leg. I used the depth setting and marked the location on both the leg and top and then cut them on the leg first.




Here I dry fit the mortises and tenons cut so far.


Using my FesTool OF 1400 and the Guide Stop with fine adjuster, I made the large through tenon mortises on the legs. The micro-adjust feature made this a quick and accurate task.



As I’ve mentioned, the layout is critical for making the pieces fit properly - and the fit is tight, very precise - and very doable with Domino.

As you can see here, the “jig” I'm using is simply a straight-edge for the Doimino to set up.


It is very stable and with the see-through view port and hairline alignment marking you just make sure Domino is butted up against the straight-edge and aligned with the mark, and make the mortise. Aligning Domino along the right cut line is easily done using the alignment mark shown here. It marks the center-line of the mortise - can’t get any better than that.


After I cut the mortises, I inserted the tenons and dry fit up the entire bench.


Nothing left but to glue it up and finish it.


This bench is part of my line of “Neo-Classical Country Antiques” -- it will be finished using Stain and Milk Paint and this one will have a small amount of distressing. The total work time, including sanding - which is made easier by being able to sand all flat pieces, is something under 6 hours. This would be a nice project for a weekend made possible by using Domino. The finished dimensions are 36”L X 16”D X 18”H. It is very strong and should last the requisite 100 years that I like to aim for when I make furniture.

If you get the idea that I like Domino, you are absolutely right. It is a real step forward in the evolution on woodworking. This is one of those tools that truly does change everything.