Teaching Classes at the William Ng School
I receive quite a few emails from viewers/readers asking if I teach classes. Although I no longer offer classes out of my own shop, I do occasionally teach on the road. This January, I’ll be teaching two classes at the William Ng School in Anaheim, CA. You may remember this is where TreeFrog and I attended the Darrell Peart Aurora Table class. William has an incredible facility and I can’t wait to get back! So here are the details with class descriptions:
Modern Hall Table (Jan. 18th – Jan. 22nd, 2010)
This modern hall table was designed with two goals in mind: to capture attention and to teach you numerous key woodworking techniques. The jatoba legs feature compound curves that are cut on the bandsaw and finished with various hand tools and rasps. The legs are attached to the aprons via traditional mortise and tenon joints. The drawer and front apron are all cut from a single piece of wood and the custom drawer pull is attached via stainless steel dowels. 
The drawer joinery also features stainless steel dowels in a creative reinforced rabbet joint. The frame of the top features splined miters and the raised center panel is wrapped with a decorative wenge strip. This unique project will challenge your woodworking skills, as well as your creativity. Sign up here!
The John Hall Frame (Jan. 23rd – Jan 24th, 2010)
This unique picture/mirror frame is an accurate reproduction of the John Hall original and was featured in the August 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine. If you aren’t familiar with John Hall, he was one of the brothers responsible for building the large majority of the Greene & Greene creations we know and love. This walnut frame’s primary feature and challenge is the “inlaid half-lap jigsaw puzzle joint”. In order to make it, we’ll use many of the same skills required for decorative router inlay (a handy skill to have in your back pocket!). The frame also features various ebony plugs, giving the piece a measure of Greene & Greene styling. Sign up here!
On a side note, I actually taught a small class on the modern hall table a few years ago. Its a pretty intense 5-day project but its a lot of fun! I threw in some pictures below so you can see what a class might be like.
I hope to see some of your smiling faces at the William Ng School in January!
Neil’s Origins Table – Viewer Project
This mind boggling project comes to us from Neil. Its an incredible lesson in “outside the box” thinking! Let’s hear from Neil:
I’m a South African living in Britain watching your American show – interesting how the world works huh? I’d like to enter a Viewer Project: my “ORIGINS” table. I really want to share this project with woodworkers because it has proven that I have to, like you say, think out of the box. Our schooling and everyday life causes the thought process to become rather closed and problem-oriented, rather than free-flowing and conceptual. It is like nothing I have tried before. Even after three months of making I still wonder how it all came to be.
It began about a year ago with an idea I had for a cabinet. My wife was pregnant and the whole process of birth become a fascination. The idea of male/female, yin-yang, parent and child etc, which I hope is evident in the design grew into the idea of using not only opposing woods, but opposing shapes, textures, types of board/timber. And then the cabinet wanted to become a table that supported a “child” if you will – the bowl in the middle.
Now what I have to keep reminding myself here is that I was trying my UTMOST best to NOT think about how I was going to make it. I’m sure us woodies are all cursed with this, but it has become so important (like with David Marks’ and furnitology’s) to concentrate on design and the “mindset” of the piece first, then problem-solve the issue of “how?” I made 2 HUGE mistakes and almost gave up but decided to go on. I was already on a tight budget for it (the veneers for the top alone cost something like $150!!) but I decided that once you pop, you can’t stop.
I found myself using tools I never had before: a round-bottomed spokeshave to finesse the curves, soil and dirt to tarnish the copper, sawdust and cyanoacrylate glue as wood-filler, a round-bottomed surform to finish the base. I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like, but it was make-it-up-as-you-go-along all the time and that was such a refreshing (though often frustrating) change. I strongly believe now that it’s not what you know, but rather what you want to learn that counts, and as long as woodworking is respective of the beauty that lies in wood, it will always be good :) It’s the ultimate material and unlike other things, it grows on trees!
Here are some construction details: “Female” consists of 27 layers of 19mm birch plywood – each piece individually routed round and then glued and pressed together. The final shape was eventually achieved after much use of a surform, belt sander, chisels and LOADS of 80 grit sandpaper wrapped around a 1.5 inch dowel.
Male consists of two halves. Each is two layers of 5mm bendyply veneered with walnut using contact adhesive (I was worried this would throw the shape out but the 2 layers of bendyply seemed to work well :) Making this was the most difficult part as the two halves had to be joined in a straight line, down a shape that curves in two directions and not only in the middle but where it joins the female too !! It took days of trial and error with a block plane to get that edge down the middle ! It’s still not perfect but hey we all have our limits :) I first made the structure then veneered one side at a time. The compound mitre on the base of the male proved to be challenging too since it does not lie flat on one surface but on an edge.
The cherry piece joining the two was made from a single length for continuity and just cut into smaller angled pieces to achieve the curve. The “foot” that joins the base of the male was done by hand with some chisels and a belt sander. The bowl also came to be using bendyply. Veneers are Maple, Walnut and I think Burr elm.
Once I got the male and female to join nicely with the cherry, and the bowl all fitted, I started on the top. I routed a 3foot diameter piece of 19mm ply and edged it with a 4mm cherry strip. I achieved this using strap-clamps and very straight-grained quarter sawn cherry to avoid it splitting/snapping (Yikes!). Initially it was to be more of a yin-yang shape on top but the waterdrop shape of the bowl called for a more refined curve. I first laid the burr walnut veneer, then the burr cluster maple (quite pink isn’t it?) then I routed the groove for the cherry inlay.
The cherry inlay isn’t conventionally liad. Rather than a thin slice of veneer it consists of about 10 layers of cherry veneer laid on edge within the groove! That proved to be a rather testing time :) After some hand-planing with a SHARP edge, it was flush to the veneer surfaces. I recessed the glass supports into the top and made the template for the glass by tracing on a piece of paper with a pencil (similar to the copper method). I sent it off to the glass-makers and they did a swell job. The glass lid is lifted out using the inch hole.
Now the copper came by accident due to the fact that I had to cover ugly screws sticking out of the female where I had screwed the ply pieces together. I tried to remove them neatly but it turned ugly after a while :) So I decided – as a friend once told me – rather make a display of your mistakes than try to hide them. I think I have realized now how helpful that can be. So I drilled the three 65mm holes 3mm deep around the screws, got hold of some 3mm copper plate and after making a rough paper template I ground them out and shaped them using a belt-sander on edge with 40 grit paper. I then tarnished them by leaving them outside on the lawn for a few nights and beat and scraped them in any way possible to create the aged look. I glued them in with PU glue and sanded them with 600 grit.
The finish: After much debate and much research (including the help of The Wood Whisperer) I finally came to a conclusion. Danish Oil is one of the easiest finishes you could ever apply (I hope Marc agrees here) I have done lots of spraying and used varnishes and oils of all shapes and sizes, but since I had been laid off at work, I had no access to the spray-shop and thus needed a really easy no fuss finish. And I must say – it does take a good 4 coats over 4 days to do the job but it is ever so easy to wipe on. A rub down with steel wool between coats and then some good-old-fashioned beeswax (2 coats) and some elbow-grease to bring out a bit of a shine and I am really very pleased with the finish. I did want to use a polyurethane spray but I think it actually worked out better this way since I can rest assured it is easily re-finished or restored.
Lastly I must say that it really has been an amazing learning experience and I would not have been able to do it without the advice and general positivity of online shows like TWW – so thanks Marc and friends!
Unique Coffee Table – Viewer Project
This Viewer Project comes from Frank. Its a very cool coffee table and was actually a group effort. Let’s hear his story:
I built this table with my friend Matt and my father-in-law George. We built it in George’s basement. He has all the tools, which was nice. We went over there every weekend for about two months to complete it. It is made from solid cherry and is held together with dowels. The finish is Danish oil and General Finishes Arm-R-Seal satin polyurethane. This was my first actual project so let me know what you think. Right now I am trying to start the tool collection so that I can start working on something else. I have plans on making a woodworking bench by hand as well as the cutting board from your videos. Thanks.
Table Saw Tuning – Question of the Week
This week’s question comes from Peter from Charlotte, NC. He writes:
“I have purchased a used General International cabinet saw from a professional shop that was going out of business and I have a question regarding its set up. Using an alignment tool that I borrowed from the Charlotte Woodworkers Association I have been able to measure the alignment of the saw’s 10″ blade to the miter slot. According to the dial indicator, the back of the blade is 0.011″ further away from the miter slot than the front of the blade. In your opinion, is this amount significant enough to warrent loosing the bolts holding the cast iron table top and trying to get it to line up perfectly (say +/- 0.003″)? Or should I leave it like it is and just try to line the fence up to the blade as best I can? That actually brings up a follow-up question: should I try to have the fence align with the blade perfectly or should I have the fence slope away from the plane of the blade at the back so that wood doesn’t get pinched between the blade and the fence and kick back? How much of a gap does one put on the back of the fence if you do this?”
And here was my reply:
“Hi Peter. First off, congrats on the new saw! Now down to business. Let me start by saying that I tend to fall on the “less picky” side when it comes to machine setup. Personally I don’t believe that a pair of calipers or a dial indicator is necessary to set up any woodworking tool (ok there may be a few). But I don’t consider the tablesaw to be one of them. That being said, I would never discourage someone from trying to get things as close to perfect as possible. Its your machine and your time, and obviously better is better, right? But in my shop, a pair of magnifying glasses and a 1/64″ graded ruler work just fine.”
“So the heart of the question is, “How much error is too much?” And please keep in mind that this is only my opinion based on my experience. You will find MANY different opinions on this topic. And many will vehemently disagree with what I have to say. But after all your research, you have to do what your gut tells you. Now I find it easer to judge these numbers when I see them in the form that I use everyday: fractions. So 0.011″ is just about 1/90th”. The smallest measurement I ever use in the shop is 1/64th”. So 1/90th in my mind is about the same size as dandruff off a dust mite. Ok, maybe it’s not that small. But if my saw had an error of 1/90th”, would I ever even notice it?? Probably not.”
“But there are two other components to this issue that we need to consider: safety and cut quality. From what I can see, a blade that is slightly further from the fence at the back really accomplishes the same thing as a fence that slopes away from the blade. So having the blade off ever so slightly doesn’t strike me as a hazard in any way. And I am theorizing that it might actually be safer when ripping. (Emphasis on theorizing).”
“Now cut quality is the one area that might concern me. The blade tilting in that direction means that your rip cuts will be squeeky clean. Anything cut from the right side of the blade will be perfect because there is no significant contact with the teeth at the rear end of the blade. And a little known fact is that certain tool companies actually use this technique on their circular saws in order to get the best cut quality possible. But what about the left side of the blade? Think of a cross-cutting operation with a miter gauge. The work piece will be cut ever so slightly by the back teeth, which means increased tearout since the back teeth cut upwards. And remember, when you line up your cut at the front of the blade, the actual cut will be 1/90th” off after you pass over the back teeth. Again, is that enough to be concerned about? Probably not in my shop.”
“So now you are even more undecided than you were before. lol. Let me just tell you what I would do at this point. You already have the dial indicator. Get the saw in position, loosen the bolts for the top, and try to get the blade as parallel as possible to the miter slot. This isn’t something you are going to do all the time, so you want to take your time and be a little picky. This way you are starting out on the right foot from day 1. And in all likelihood, this saw will hold its setting for a very long time. Furthermore, you will get to know your new saw. And whenever you check alignment in the future, you can make the decision on how picky you want to be based on everything you’ve learned.”
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