HB Tansu #3-Progress 2

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Greg Merritt

hb_tansu-002What a difference a few days make.  My electric was restored late Sunday afternoon.  Thus ending the almost four day struggle to keep the water pipes and myself from freezing.  Today the temperature climbed to almost 60F.  No complaints with that. Continue reading →

Posted in Hillbilly Tansu-002 | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Making Do!

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Greg Merritt

Wednesday night a winter storm rolled through dumping ten inches of heavy, wet snow. Thursday morning found the roads impassable and I had no electricity. No electricity means no heat. So priority number one was to keep the house warm enough so that the water pipes, my family and myself did not freeze. I resorted to running the burners on the natural gas stove, risky at best, and started shoveling snow. Continue reading →

Posted in Hillbilly Tansu-002 | 13 Comments

HB Tansu #3-Progress 1

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Greg Merritt

hb_tansu-002So the boy has decided that the tansu has some utility and has requested that I build one for him.  So I agreed.  Since he will be moving out in a few short years I thought an ultra-portable option would be a good idea.  So I sat down with my sketch book and scribbled a few options.  I finally settled on a design that has the same height as the first two that I built but only half the width.   Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Hillbilly Tansu-002 | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Cleaning Day and Tool Storage

Posted on February 28, 2015 by Greg Merritt

Today was all about cleaning the shop.  I’m pretty good at always wiping down my tools and putting them away.  Sweeping up the shavings…not so much.  The shavings were close to knee deep, so something had to be done before starting a new project.

The day started off slow though.  It was cold in the shop!  I’m pretty sure I heard my little space heater swearing at me as I headed back to the house and waited for the shop to warm up.   Continue reading →

Posted in 5-Tools, Thoughts-Views | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Chinese Gate Bench-Progress 6

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Greg Merritt

I picked up today where I left off yesterday by profiling the remaining three legs.  I followed this by adding an edge detail to the long edges of the seat board.  Again I pressed my single moulding plane into service.  Then using my #4 to round over the remaining bits.  A little sanding here and there and I was ready for the final assembly.  This bench must be assembled in a particular way.  I described this procedure in an earlier post and had a request for a video to clarify my description.  Making a video is not something I’ve done very much.  Nor do I understand the ins and outs, but I took a stab at it.  At the very least, it does show the sequence. Continue reading →

Posted in Chinese Gate Bench | Tagged | 15 Comments

Chinese Gate Bench-Progress 5

Posted on February 21, 2015 by Greg Merritt

Woke up to about 8″ of heavy wet snow this morning.  This mess continued all day and is still coming down as I write this.  Trying to get to work Monday is gonna be fun.  Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program.

The plan for today was to continue shaping parts.  But first I had to disassemble the dry fit from last time.  This went a little easier than I had anticipated but still took about half an hour of slowly knocking each joints apart.  Once I had the bench broken down to its basic elements I turned my attention to the long rails.  The first order of business was to create a template to ensure uniformity.   Continue reading →

Posted in Chinese Gate Bench | Tagged | 2 Comments

Marking in the Waste

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Greg Merritt

I’ve been working with wood for a lot of years.  Most of those years consisted of fits and starts with no real skill building taking place.  There were several reasons, but past is past.  This all changed a few years ago when several things came together for me.  I built a small shed in which to work, Paul Sellers started Masterclasses and I could afford to purchase some hand tools.  Once I could put serious focus on woodworking I knew that, beyond developing the basic skills, joinery was of primary importance.

As I began to build projects with more and more joinery one thing became obvious.  I needed a way to keep track of what went where.   Continue reading →

Posted in 6-Joinery | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Chinese Gate Bench-Design Notes

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Greg Merritt

chinese_gate_benchI thought I would take some time and discuss a few key points pertaining to the structural design of the Chinese Gate Bench.  I designed this project from the ground up utilizing photos of antique benches and filling in the blanks with my best educated guess.  Now that I have a dry fit of the structure I feel confident that all of my choices were, if not historically accurate, correct in function. Continue reading →

Posted in Chinese Gate Bench, Design | Tagged | 4 Comments

Chinese Gate Bench-Progress 4

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Greg Merritt

First let me address a point of confusion that I inadvertently created.  My intent all along was and is to install this bench just INSIDE my front door.  Given the name of the project and writings in my first post, I can see how I created the impression that this bench was going to be outside my front door.  Anyway, this bench will live inside the house.

My time in the shop today was stressful and long.  The day began easy enough.  I cut and fitted the second long rail.  This went smoothly.  Then it was time for the seat. Continue reading →

Posted in Chinese Gate Bench | Tagged | 4 Comments

Chinese Gate Bench-Progress 3

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Greg Merritt

Progress continues despite the frigid weather.  My little oil-filled space heater is getting a real workout.  I started my day by chopping and sawing the joinery in the remaining two legs.  After I finished that, I tackled the short end rails.

I thought that I had enough cherry offcuts to make all four rails.  Unfortunately, most of them were too short to be of any use.  Two of them fit the bill however.  Those I used as the lower rails on each end assembly.  The remaining two rails I made from pine.  First I cut the stock to rough length.  The next step was to run each piece through my thicknessing jig.  This resulted in each piece being square and identical in size. Continue reading →

Posted in Chinese Gate Bench, Design | Tagged | 8 Comments