26 February 2016

A lot has happened since last August, but for now I am just going to think about what has happened in the recent months.  I guess the reason I am back to the blog is because my tablet is not working and usually I keep updated pictures of projects on Instagram. Instagram has a way of sucking me in and dominating my screen time.

To start out 2016 I was working on a couple coffee tables made from a massive redwood slab. Yes massive, this slab is the size of a sheet of plywood but a full two inches thick. I suggested not cutting the slab into smaller pieces but my client insisted, saying that he had been holding on to this and many other slabs for nearly 50 years. The slab had some cracks through it so I cut around the cracks to get the two tops.

The design for the legs was up in the air so I created some models to give him an idea of what it could look like. We ended up going with a trestle style even though I was pushing for a Danish Mid-Century Modern look. The shape of the tops were similar to their dining table made from the same redwood stump he had milled so many years ago. He wanted me to use maple for the legs but I was pushing for redwood so we compromised and I used both.

Another project was making jambs for some already made redwood sashes. The jambs were made from salvaged redwood and the brass hardware came from House of Antique Hardware up in Portland, OR. The sashes didn't have glass so I hung the sashes then installed the glass.

On the homestead we tiled the curb for the barn shower. We angled the curb into the shower to prevent water from leaking outside the door. I am not sure if it worked or not now that we shower in the house. This is now mainly for guests. The redwood door is still doing very well, I made the door in 2011 I believe. Not a sign of deterioration. This will probably be the last ferro-cement shower I do. It just molds too easily and also was a pain in the ass to plaster.

Now I am working on a Pepperwood Pantry cabinet made from locally milled wood from a log found on the river bar. I had to treat the wood with a Borax product call Board Defense. My client was hoping for it to be installed this week but the floor and window project kind of fell into my lap as priority. That is how it goes sometimes. The windows were to be installed ASAP because of the weather and the floor because of a break in the calendar of events. Well I better get back to the shop.

August 1, 2015

This is definitely my favorite time of year. I love the filtered light caused by far off wildfires, the semi still hot air, the new growth on the fruit trees and even the thought of projects to accomplish before winter sets in. One project I have in mind is a firewood shed / garden shed near the Yellow House.

Last week I finished the restoration if the staircase and balustrade in the house. Yesterday Becky and Oliver began to stain the stairs an ebony hue. The small test places they did look amazing. They continue to stain while I work on the exterior of the bay window. The wall beneath the sills has been covered with plywood and partly wrapped with tar paper for too many years now, I am embarrassed to find out how long it has been in that state. The scaffolding is down and progress is being made by covering the lower third of the bay window with salvaged Redwood from the house.

I am amazed how much painted Redwood I have, even though  I reused as much of the original material in the renovation/restoration of the house I still have a hefty collection of dirty, nail infested with failing paint old growth Redwood. I am against planing painted boards because of the paint particles that are released and also because of how the paint and dirt dull the knives.

Well I needed to take the material thickness down and eighth of an inch plus some and I planned on only planing the back side. Unfortunately the painted side was the nicer side and the paint was in terrible condition so I flipped them through the planer and got my three quarter thickness I needed to have enough of a reveal under the drip edge of the window sills.

Under these boards I covered the plywood and tar paper with three inch bead board that I fabricated from two by fours that were once a deck at the Mattole School. After wire brushing them I sliced them in half on the table saw and then planed this fresh face. The boards were jointed then ripped then a bead was cut with a router set up in my table saw. The last step was cutting rabbets to make a half lap so that the water won't slip in between them. These were  nailed to the wall and then Oliver primed them while I prepped wood for the frames. That is where I am now, enough time spent on this device. It is to crank some DRI radio on Pandora and make the  vertical boards that make up frames that cover the bead board. Time to get dirty and wire brush these bad boys.

July 27, 2015

I have conquered a project that I have been putting off for many years. Now that we are living in the house I must walk up and down the stairs several times a day and often with bare feet. The staircase and banister was ready for restoration. The newel post sat about a half inch off the floor and wiggled back and forth with ease. Nearly every visitor would grab the banister, discover it was loose and shake it back and forth just to see how loose it really was.

I took some photos of the process but keeping up with technology is endless, wasteful and expensive. The computer I use to download my pictures to is outdated now and I am constantly reminded that this computer won't support the applications that need to be used in order to tap in to the world wide web, the internet, the biggest waste of time since the invention of the television. I use it, we all use it, very few have never logged in to this information sucking tool. Sure there is plenty of useful information at the tip of our finger. Truth is we all spend too much time checking our Facebook, our email, our Snapchat or Instagram. It is a wonderful way to keep in touch with friends and family, and so was the telephone. We don't even know for sure what will happen to a human race living amongst radio waves of all kinds. At least we won't need so much copper to make all those cords, its cordless now... Bluetooth. Does that mean we won't need to mine so much material from the Earth? We are making small gadgets using less material but making these gadgets disposable. Everyone will have to upgrade and buy the next thing. Throw away the old and purchase the new. It is the way it works these days. Not long ago we would by a quality tool and take care of it, knowing that if properly taken care of it would last for many generations. It was made from the finest material and crafted from the hands of skilled craftsman. Now most items manufactured are disposable, sad but true.

Many people still think like this and won't buy into the wasteful economy trap we are being forced into. In order to do anything these days you have to have some sort of insurance. Our local volunteer fire department needs to raise $20,000 a year to cover costs, a large portion of these costs are to insurance companies. Insurance costs are what put most small businesses out of business. I see it happening over and over again.

Enough ranting, the staircase project was a pleasure. I replaced about half the treads, turned four of the broken spindles and reused a couple that Becky found at an antique store. They were the same exact pattern but only worked for the short spindles. I had to turn the longer of the pair. I made molding to match the original to replace molding that was split or broken. It seemed like the staircase had been repaired once before, maybe around 1959 when the PG & E electrical hook up was done. The repairs were done with wire nails with thin heads. The original work was done with square cut nails.

At this point we might shellac the fresh wood and stain everything a dark color to match the original. Under the molding the wood was sealed with a white primer. Becky found traces of green paint when cleaning out the grooves in the newel post.

I have moved on to wrapping up the bay window. Now I am about to go through my stash of painted Redwood that I have left over from the house. Hopefully the material will guide me in finishing the bay. Time to get dirty.

July 8, 2015

Now that we are in the house I am not tempted to go online as often. We have no internet in our newly restored home and I think that is a good thing. However now I have not been keeping up on my craftsman journal. Even now I feel that I should continue working on this shelf for the CP office but I thought 5 minutes wouldn't hurt.

My main focus lately has been our house. I built the doors and drawer fronts for the kitchen and installed them. I only have one more door to install which will hinge like a transom window and have a chain that holds the door in place like a desk.

Making and install installing thresholds for the house doors made a big difference in air infiltration. The last air leak is around the sashes downstairs in the kitchen. I milled, oiled and fit the stops but didn't yet nail them in place. First I want to mortise for the window latch catch plate before nailing them so that I can mortise on a horizontal surface and keep dust and chips out of the house.

My time is up, next time I will write about other projects for clients. Chiau.

Drawers, Doors & Pinewood Derby

There is a lot going on these days, more to do than what I can make time for... well it can't all be done at once so the test of patience begins once again. I have started building drawers for our kitchen and for Tony and Julies. I owe Tony for making the brick wall behind our wood stove, we are trading hour for hour. I glued up a third of them today.

After the drawers are glued up I am anxious to do my first zinc countertop. We have all the materials now; the zinc, solder, flux, contact cement. sponge rollers (for spreading adhesive) and a good quality soldering iron that I use for stained glass. My trial top will be an office table for the radical left newsletter and website CounterPunch. I have done a bit of research on the internet and am ready to give it a go. I feel like pulling a late nighter....  maybe another night. The drawers need to move on first, after glue up they get the edges chamfered, then the first coat of shellac. The front edges need to be trimmed flush too.

Kitchen counter to cover with Zinc

A project I wrapped up recently was the pair of French doors for the Cockburn residence. The original doors were made of Pine and faced the South-East direction with no overhanging roof protection so they saw a lot of direct sun as well as the pounding rain. The bottom rail was toast on one of the doors and the other was not far behind. I used old growth redwood that was salvaged from a wharf on Humboldt Bay by Jim Groeling and Associates. The glass on the original doors had been painted on with gold leaf by ceramic artist Jim Danisch. I was asked to preserve these eight panes of insulated glass into the new doors. This was another project where I had an opening dimension, and the glass dimension, and I had to make the wood fit between the two. I think I am getting good at this because the glass fit perfectly, every single one.

Cockburn's Doors

The Pinewood Derby came and went and with it was an evening of track maintenance. We built the track four years ago, we being local Petrolia volunteers most with kids in the elementary school but some without. From the very beginning there was a flaw in the plywood in one of the track seems, this year I cut about four inches out of the track to remove the flaw. This meant disassembling about four feet of track to get to the bolts to move the pieces around. It was fairly simple and I am really happy with the track design. It is a combination of plans that I found online combined to make this particular track design. We are still combing out the computerized finish gate, we had technical difficulties this year. Possibly because kids were playing around the track earlier that day and a witness had seen one of the young boys pulling on the wires that go to the switch at the starting gate. Something was amiss with lane three so we had to figure out the results by hand, thank you Becky.

11th Annual Mattole Pinewood Derby

My little book.

This is my brains external hard drive, it fits into my pocket and is one of three items that are pushed into my trouser pockets every day. Ear plugs, Atlas Nitrile gloves, and my book. I have often thought it would be fun to take a photo of a page from my book and then accompany that with more photos and a short explanation connecting those photos to the list from the book. This page doesn't have a date but I know from surrounding pages that this was the first week of March 2015.

one of many little books

On the right is instructions I wrote down from a website by Antique Gas Stoves that explains how to remove the Oven Control Knob on our O'Keefe and Merrit cook stove and range. This is our second stove by this company and we are looking forward to using it in our home that we have been working on since June of 2006.

broken oven control knob

This TO DO list is just before a town day. I hadn't taken the truck to town in several months and recently I had to replace the battery. I purchased a new battery but still haven't installed it because I had robbed the battery from the Belvedere when the old battery stopped holding a charge.

1962 Plymouth Belvedere

The Cut List for plywood is for two kitchens worth of drawers made with Baltic Birch plywood, a kitchen sink cabinet for Ruthie and countertop material that gets covered with zinc.

Sink cabinet to replace.

The stools (or sills) are from the house, they have been covered by blue tape for at least a year to protect them from paint. Underneath the tape they were pretty funky, water stained and covered with dust, bird shit and bug droppings. I have know idea how the tape even stuck.

Window Stools Finished

Our water comes from a small pond dug by the old timers with  a rock wall stacked around it that I discovered last summer when I decided to pull plants out around the perimeter to enlarge the waters storage area. The 12 volt low flow pump sucks a lot of sediment in the summer when the pond can't keep up with the 1.8 gallons per minute suck of the pump. Becky discovered a neat drop down filter that is easy to clean out by just closing a valve after the filter and opening a valve on the bottom of the filter cartridge. This flushes out the sediment trapped in the filter and the filter is made of stainless steel. It is installed now but I haven't tried it yet, we aren't using much water at the house. However we hope to be moving in before summer, we only need to get our kitchen functioning. It is getting close, cabinet carcasses are installed and ready for the zinc. For plumbing we only need to plumb the gas line and get the old stove working.

Flush Down Filter

Finishing Wood

Finishing is not one of my strong points, although I have tried several different products and also have read numerous articles and books on the topic. It seems that my finishing techniques are constantly changing. When I was an apprentice in my early twenties I was taught to use General's tung oil finish applied with a sponge brush and then wiped off if there was any finish left on the surface after twenty or thirty minutes.

Soaking with tung oil/urethane.

Then water based finishes starting to emerge so I began experimenting with those. I didn't like how you couldn't go back over what you had already brushed on, I was used to applying the finish heavily and then going back over it with the brush to even it out. I remember using water based urethane on a set of nine sliding doors for a house in Oregon. I am sure that this finish didn't hold up because a decade later I went back to using water based finishes and noticed that the finish didn't seem to stay on the wood for very long at all. It was almost as if the finish itself just evaporated away. I discovered this by using it on three different kitchen cabinet projects and seeing for myself how what seemed like a well covered finish when the cabinets left the shop, only a month later seeming like raw wood with no protection at all.

I read a book given to me by Alex Cockburn called Adventures in Wood Finishing : 88 Rue de Charonne by George Frank,  about a French chemist who worked as a wood finisher in the early 1900's. He made his own finishes and being a chemist experimented with many different chemicals. I followed this path for a bit making my own linseed oil mix and even using a double boiler to make a wax and oil finish. Sam Maloof also talks about concocting finishes this way in his book Sam Maloof, Woodworker. It was messy process and the finish took a long time to dry.

I discovered how to make my own shellac when I took some summer classes in Fort Bragg at the fine woodworking program started by James Krenov. I bought shellac flakes and had a concentrate that I would thin and apply with a rag. I did this for a few projects but the super thin coats took too long to build up and I longed for something more durable, long lasting and non-toxic. I used fast drying polyurethane for a bit but the toxic fumes were unbearable. I tried spar varnish but it seemed impossible not to have drips.

I went back to using water based finishes after our neighbors used a w.b. finish on their floor in their newly constructed cabin. I liked that it didn't have a particularly bad smell and it dried really fast. I got used to just going over the wood once without doubling over what I had already applied until after it had dried and was sanded. This is when I used water based urethane for the three different kitchen projects I already mentioned.

Finishing carcass parts before assembling.

I decided to try something new, I browsed the finishes at Pierson's Building Center, our local hardware store. I started using a penetrating tung oil by Deft. I really liked how the finish soaked into the wood and the smell was much better than Watco's oil finish. The only thing I didn't like was how it took so many coats to build up the finish.

A woodworking friend told me that he had read an article about someone who used the pre-mixed shellac by Zinsser, by cutting it one to one with denatured alcohol. I decided to try this out since I felt I still had not discovered the ideal finish for my work. I liked this very much, it dried fast, left a solid finish after two coats on wood and smelled good. I started using it on everything, however my wife felt that it might not last and needed to be more durable especially for outdoor applications like windows and doors.

Thinking back to all the articles and books I had read I decided to add the penetrating tung oil to the wood that was first sealed with two coats of shellac. This is what I do now, what a beautiful result! Of course there is more to finishing that just applying the product, there is sanding. Who likes to sand? I like to sand as little as possible, it is just another particle that could damage my lungs.

Redwood Door finished with two coats of shellac and two coats of Deft Oil.

Before applying the first coat of shellac I sand to 150 grit, if it is plywood I only sand once with 150 on an orbital sander. If it is wood I will start with 80, then 100, then 150 grit. Apply the first coat of shellac with a sponge brush, it dries fast and raises the grain. Then sand with 220 grit with a palm sander, hitting the corners and edges by hand. Apply the second coat of shellac. Then sand with 320 grit with the palm sander and this is the last time I need to sand. With a sponge brush I apply a liberal amount of Deft penetrating oil, let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes and use blue paper towels to wipe it down. One (or better two) days later I rub the wood with fine steel wool and use an air compressor to blow away the steel wool particles as I wipe it with a cotton rag. I apply one more coat of the Deft oil, wipe it off after 30 minutes, a day or two later rub it down with steel wool again and buff it with a cotton rag. The result is stunning. For plywood carcasses I only use shellac and four coats are applied.