Author: Gary

Categories
Hand Tools Joinery Practical techniques

A small exterior door project

Not a bad match. The door will shrug off water as the panelling hangs, but I did make the bottom cut off a few degrees, just in the hope of slowing any capillary action. I always treat parts of exterior jobs with Tetrion wood hardener too.

This door was made for an outhouse. The client wanted an exact copy in timber that would last a little longer than the previous door. I was quite pleased how it turned out and I learned a few things, which is always good.

Not a bad match. The door will shrug off water as the panelling hangs, but I did make the bottom cut off a few degrees, just in the hope of slowing any capillary action. I always treat parts of exterior jobs with Tetrion wood hardener too.

Before I started work on the copy of this door, I wanted to check how the upper corner joints went together, as the client specified an exact match. The ‘long and short’ shoulder joint is what’s used here, as the next shot shows a little better.

Part of the joint has broken off here, but essentially the face of the door that is rebated for panelling has a rebate that is run right through the joint in both stiles and rails. The joint has to accommodate this, so the shoulder one one side reaches further than the other. This picture is not a great illustration, as the chunk of wood behind is part of the rear profile of the stile, but you can see the stepped shoulders of the top rail.

This is a better example! From Charles Hayward’s ‘Woodwork Joints’ book.

My choice of wood for this job was Accoya. A very stable engineered wood, commonly now used in joinery applications, particularly exterior jobs. The timber should experience next to no shrinkage or movement and takes paint well.

Setting out on a kitchen table. Sigh. This job came in while I was searching for a new workshop. I’ve since signed on the new space, but the door had to be made in the interim. Sometimes you just have to ‘make do’. Here’s I’m ganging up the two stiles and marking out for mortices. I already know the thickness of the panel material, as I’ve measured from the existing door.

I treated myself to a Bridge City Tools square some years ago on eBay. It needed a bit of work to clean it up, but nice to have.

When you don’t have a workshop with a strong bench and a mortiser, you have to work out how you are going to cut deep mortises. I wanted to avoid chopping out by hand, as I was restricted to a workbench in the garden. The deep pocket cutter from Wealdon Tools turned out to be a lifesaver.

Plunging the mortises with a Triton TRA001 router and the deep pocket cutter produced a lovely result. I took a deep breath here as things started to look a bit more achievable in the time frame. This joint is the lower rail in the stile, so the mortice is equal both sides. This rail allows to the panelling by being thinner and the panelling simply passes right over it.

Not glued, just cramped up in the hallway so that I can check for square. Thankfully, it was.

I got on with the panelling next. I had already taken the Accoya panelling down to 13mm on a thicknesser at a ‘day-rate’ workshop local to me. I dropped each piece into a simple jig which allowed me to make a tongue on one edge with my bargain Katsu router. (These small routers are one of the best bargains on the internet).

Normally I would expect shiplapped boards on these doors, but the original had tongue and groove fitting. Hence I copied that and using Accoya, there should be little or no shrinkage hopefully.

The stiles are made long, so in this picture you have to imagine them trimmed back to the top of the rail, but you can see that the rebate is run straight through on the stile and the rail. the panelling drops into the rebate and I will add a groove all around the inside of the rebate later. This will mean once I cut a tongue onto the tops of the panelling, all the panels can ‘lock’ into the groove for a snug and strong fit.

The tongue and groove panelling. If this wasn’t Accoya, I would leave a 2mm expansion gap everywhere, but with engineered wood, I’m closing it right up.

Everything locked into the grooves and skew nailed into the rails. The outer strips of panelling have been cut so that they have tongues to go into stile grooves.

Some minor filling here and there and I added a few front nails too, just for good measure. Only because this is going to be a painted job.

Not a bad match. The door will shrug off water as the panelling hangs, but I did make the bottom cut off a few degrees, just in the hope of slowing any capillary action. I always treat parts of exterior jobs with Tetrion wood hardener too.

From the back.

The offset joint on the top corners. Mid and lower rails don’t need this, they are just finished thinner by the depth of the rebate so that the panelling goes over them.

Categories
Hand Tools Practical techniques

Mini-Workbench Plans

This is a nice project you might want to make if you’re pressed for space, or if your current setup doesn’t include a sturdy bench top with a vice.
Steve Tomlin of SBT Design recently won first prize in the worldwide ‘Masters of Wood’ plans competition 2017, organised by Triton tools. His ‘Mini Workbench’ has some neat storage ideas, integrating an area for Festool systainers and also featuring the ‘holy’ worktops where you can use Festool clamps and dogs.
The bench also looks useful for traditional hand tool use, which is why I like it, with a good-sized vice and nice use of hardwood in the frame. Steve uses oak, but as the plans show, you can use whatever hardwood you like. There’s some storage for your bits under the worktop and I understand Steve is also working on a second version with a drawer included.
The plans are free, so you can download them and store them for a winter project maybe, or just crack on and get one built.




Categories
Hackney History London Machinery People

East End Canal Heritage


In the relatively short time I’ve lived in Hackney myself, I’ve seen a radical shift in the use of the canals in the area. For one, more and more people are living on them, with the costs of a barge and berthing being preferable to living in a minute flat with sky-high rent attached.
The Regent’s and Hertford Union Canals were of course mainly used for trade and transport, with the timber trade featuring heavily. Carolyn Clark has just produced a wonderful booklet, which you can download here, in the form of a quiz.
East End Canal Heritage Quiz
There is some great information there, my favourite being a quote about Vic Veneers which reads:

‘Places like Vic Veneers…just inside Ducketts, you could actually look under the wharf, it was built above the water and they used to take the veneer timber into soak, and when they were nice and wet, soft as anything, they put them to the knife….they’d lift it out, put it on the shaver which was like a flaming great pencil sharpener and spin it up. You’d get a great long strip of veneer like flipping toilet paper, it might be 50-60 foot in length and 10 foot wide.’

Categories
Norris Shoulder planes

Distinctive Norris A7

As readers of this blog will know, I do trade in collectable woodworking tools, but I don’t often get round to keeping many of them myself. I see little point in keeping tools on a shelf, when they could be being used in a workshop and appreciated in use, rather than for purely aesthetic reasons. I maybe own four or five tools I would call ‘collectable’, the rest of my tools are good clean users, Stanley, Record and the like.
One of my rarer tools is this Norris plane which I’ve been using on a small project and it only goes to confirm my opinion that tools are best kept used and not shelved.
This Norris A7 shoulder plane is a rarer type because the wedge tensioner is at the back and not mid-mounted. This design was a short-lived venture, (I think some models were made around the 1920’s-30’s, according to someone who knows much more than me).
In use, this plane is sublime. The mouth is super-tight, as you can see and the classic Norris adjuster allows for micro blade adjustment. The blade itself has four drilled holes, allowing for larger shifts up or down according to wear, before you dial in with the adjuster.
So if you have a lot of collectables, I would recommend getting a few out one day and getting them going on a project. After all, you can’t take them with you!










Categories
Hand Tools Planes

Info on coach making tools?

This beautiful coachmakers plough plane went past my limit last week on a well-known auction site. I should have gone higher, but a limit is a limit. It’s a stunning tool with a fence that will work around curves, such as a coachmaker might require.
I have had so many coachmaker-related tools of this kind pass through my lock-up, I’m more and more keen to find a book that shows the variety and uses of all the different types. Like coopering, the art is now pretty much lost, but if anyone has information on a great book out there that deal with all the various challenges with coach building, or if you know of a good book about the tools used, please let me know.
Meanwhile, here’s the stunning plough I really should have gone higher on… 😉