1 done, 4 to go......

My saw donkeys will definitely be done by the weekend and I'm shooting for a friday completion date. We'll have to see who wins the brass ring there. I should be making project #3 on them on sunday.

I got a bit distracted with my Fine Woodworking DVD that came today. This was one of the magazines I maintained a subscription to for almost twenty years. My DVD has every issue from #1 up to the last one of 2014. A lot easier to stow one DVD than almost 40 years worth of magazines. You can't beat a computer for a search function.

monday night glue up

I don't know how this will hold up long term, but two days later it's still together. So far the crack has not opened back up. I'll have to wait to see how it holds up after it's a saw donkey and tossed around the shop.

weird crack glue up

This crack/split didn't close up tight and I still can't figure out how it split this way. Another one to keep the peepers peeled on.

mortise time

When I did the first layout for the wrong setup, this knot wasn't in the way. Now it's dead center for the the leg mortise. I drilled the waste out of this one first just in case it decided to go south on me.

done

No hiccups to speak of drilling this. The bit wandered some but it stayed between the lines. The bit drilled this knot better than it drilled the knot free areas. The knot was harder and denser than the rest of the wood and I think that was why it drilled cleaner.

no hiccups with the mortiser

Other than the ends, the mortiser sailed through this knot without a whimper. Every end cut I made, the mortise bit tended to move inboard at a slight angle. Mortise bits don't do good on a partial bite.

right off the mortise machine

I found that the stock had moved just a tiny bit. A couple of them bowed slightly and that caused the 4 square to be off. It wasn't enough of headache to worry about mostly because I only checked it on the last one.

cleaned up the walls

I didn't go nutso on this. All I did was smooth out the fuzzies on the wall. Douglas Fir tends to get stringy and that is what I removed. I was satisfied with the straightness of the walls and left them as is.

much better

I paid more attention to the end cuts and that started with doing the layout with my knife. I didn't get any of the stepped ends I got yesterday. These aren't perfectly smooth and straight and a few swipes with a rasp fixed that.

just made it

This saw has enough plate under the spine to reach the shoulder saw cut. With the bottom of the spine resting on the top, the teeth are in the shoulder saw cut. I do have a deeper cut tenon saw but I would rather not use it on this wood.

one tenon sawn

I am going to try and fit all the tenons on this with just a chisel. I've been watching Paul Sellers and now Richard Maguire use just chisels to trim tenons etc.  Time to pony up and give it a try.

I got it right

I didn't screw up the tenons but the shoulders on the far tenon were a bit OTL. I didn't saw them plumb but I did much better on the near ones. I used my shoulder plane, an adjustable square, and a chisel to get it square.

one done

This tenon took me about 10 minutes to fit. I was aware of my snug fit on the plugs I did and I didn't want a repeat here. These through mortises and tenons aren't going to be a furniture grade fit and look for sure. These aren't like the enclosed mortise/tenon work I did on the sharpening bench. I have four more to do so I have room to improve and get at least one looking ok.

I'm itching to see what one of these look like. But I'll have to contain myself and pay attention to trimming and fitting first.

accidental woodworker

trivia corner
What is a Pudu?
answer - the world's smallest deer (from South America)

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