Building a Timberframe House (YouTube Playlist)

Things have been hectic and the schedule changes daily.  I'll keep trying to put these short videos together each week.  The plan is to make a more comprehensive video when everything is done, but for now... this is what you get!

Building a Timberframe House YouTube Playlist

DIY Keva Planks Complete!

The finally tally is 1,212 planks, with a total cost of $120.  Not too shabby.

I'm not 100% convinced I picked the right color rope.  If it continues to bother me, I'll change it later.

Plank you very much.

Alright.  So.  It turns out 1,000 of something is an exercise in tedium.  It's easy to just say you're going to make 1,000 of something, but the reality of that number is lost among all the millions and billions we hear about on a daily basis.

When's the last time you did something 1,000 times, on purpose?

Step 1: Order Lumber

Dunham Hardwoods, hard rock maple, 4/4 thickness, 5" wide, 60" long.  Done.

Step 2: Slice it on the bandsaw.  

6 boards, 15 rips per board = 90 rips.

4/4 lumber is already 3/4" thick.  Coincidentally, Keva Planks are 3/4" wide.  Ripping 5 feet long x 1/4"+ thick strips over and over again results in quartersawn hard rock maple strips, which is the most stable choice really.   If that makes you feel any better.

Ripcuts

One of the boards had some resistance in it and it pinched and snapped my carbide-tipped bandsaw blade.  *Grumbles*

Step 2.5: Order a new Lenox Tri-Master.

In the meantime, swap to a spare blade and keep ripping.

Step 3: Thickness Planer 

Plane the strips down to an even 1/4" thickness.  90 strips / 12 at a time x 4 passes through the planer = 30 passes.

Step 4: Sand to soften the four long edges.

Did it by hand with 120 grit.  Took 1 minute per strip, so about 90 minutes total.  4 long edges x 90 strips = 360 long edges.

Step 5: Wax the long strips

It's easier at this stage.  2 wipes of wax x 90 strips = 180 wipes.  Let it dry.  I didn't buff off the excess.  It'll wear off with life.

Step 6: Crosscut to length.

I did stacks of 7, with 15 crosscuts per stack.  90 strips / 7 in a stack x 15 crosscuts = 192 crosscuts.

Crosscuts

Step 7: The crosscuts weren't perfectly square.  Awesome.

So now you have to shoot the end of every. single. plank.  The planks should be able to stand on end, unaided.

1,000 planks, 2 ends per plank, 2-4 shoots per end = 4,000 - 8,000 shoots.

This is just the last 10%.

Step 8: Sand to soften the 8 short edges.

8 edges per plank x 1,000 planks = 8,000 edges.  One swipe of each across 180grit sandpaper is enough.

Box on the right has been shot.  Box on the left has been sanded (and are done).

I think that's it.  The ends aren't waxed, but I don't think that's going to be a problem.

DIY Keva Planks

My son (Workshop Gremlin #1) is turning 4 this month.  I set out to find a gift to give him on his birthday.

He has tons of toy trucks and cars, tons of LEGOs, a big bag of randomly shaped building blocks.  He doesn't really need more of those, but I didn't want to buy him just another toy.  I like buying him things that stimulate his brain.  He's a smart kid, let's keep his brain moving.

I stumbled across Keva Planks, showed my wife, and as quick as that, the decision was made.  I'm building him 1,000 Keva Planks and a box to store them.

First step: The Dovetailed Box.  I made this out of pine, which really demands the sharpest of tools.  Geez.  But it's so nice to work with soft wood for once.  Planes with ease and a gentle shooshing sound, smells wonderful, and is plenty strong.

The cambered clamping cauls work like a charm!

I've got it on four small casters so it slides around.  I may drill holes and make some rope handles for it.  We'll see.

Moxon Vise Complete!

 Pretty easy build.  My dovetailed standee block jobbie works great.

Moxon Vise Support Block

My shop is in disarray until I can offload 600+ board feet of clear white pine that's monopolizing all of my space, so I've been using this time to plan a few different projects.  This time I'm working on my Moxon Vise.  I've already got the Benchrafted hardware and the hard rock maple, I just need time and a plan (...and space to work).

I'm enamored with the benchtop Moxons I've seen, especially Derek Jones' versions, but I have to be realistic.  I don't have much shop space and I'd like to be able to hang the vise up to get it out of my way when I'm not using it.

I'm also a fan of simplicity.  Christopher Schwarz just uses a piece of scrap.  To date I've been using my Jack Plane as the support, but that won't work with a vise that elevates the work 8-1/4" above my workbench top.

My only problem with Schwarz's piece of scrap is that it looks like scrap and can be easily lost.  Cutting another piece of scrap to the necessary length is an easy affair - scrap is always available.  But I'd rather keep all the necessary components of the vise together when it's not in use. A place for everything and everything in its place.

So with that in mind, I came up with this option.

The support block serves double-duty as the "flush" elevation block to position the vertical board.  Clamp the vertical board, reposition the block, position the horizontal board.  Done.

The dovetailed slot in the stabilizer gives it a place to live where it's unlikely to get misplaced by the Workshop Gremlins.

I'm also going to add springs and maybe some knobs like David Barron did.

Cambered Cauls Done

I accidentally ordered more wood than I needed, so I ended up with more cauls than I planned for.  Whoops.

(4) Pairs of 48"

(4) Pairs of 36"

(4) Pairs of 24"

That should do.

Here's a quick explanation of how they work.  You put an F-style clamp on each end with the cambers facing each other.  By clamping the far end until the wood touches, you'll be flattening out the curves in each caul, thus applying even pressure along the length of the cauls, thus keeping the boards you are clamping flush to one another.

Sorry for the lack of photos of the build process, but it's pretty straightforward.

1. Buy 8/4 Lumber, preferably something stiff.  Maple or Oak are good candidates.
2. Rip to 1-3/4" width
3. Cut to length
4. Draw an arc on one of each length, according to the specs on Lee Valley's site
5. Draw lines every 6" down the length of the board
6. Use the jointer to work your way down to the curve, using those 6" lines as reference points to maintain symmetry
7. Trace the curve you just made onto the other boards, repeat steps 5 & 6
8. When the curves are done, run a dado down the middle of the flat side opposite the arc (just to make it easier for the router)
9. Then run the T-Slot at the router according to the specs on Lee Valley's site
10. Use a card scraper and sandpaper to smooth everything out
11. Drill a through-hole at one end and run some paracord through it for a hang loop
12. Wax 'em up
13. Find somewhere to hang 'em

A certain company that sells these would have charged me:
$358 for (4) Pairs of 48"
$278 for (4) Pairs of 36"
$190 for (4) Pairs of 24"
= $826 total

I spent $150 for the lumber and $47 for a Whiteside T-Slot router bit.
= $197 total + 2 or 3 afternoons

More than I intended on spending, but these will come in quite handy during table top glue-ups of any size.

Cambered Clamping Cauls

And another thing...

I'm gonna need 48" long clamping cauls for when I get to gluing together Jason's 40" wide table tops, so I'm gonna make my own cambered clamping cauls similar to Bowclamp.

Bowclamp Clamping Cauls

I'll use 8/4 Hard Rock Maple and make 3 pairs of 24", 36" and 48" lengths.  That should do.

This will allow me to keep the boards of the table top flush to one another during glue up.  These cauls apply even pressure across the entire width of the table top using one f-clamp at each end.  The clamps pull the camber flat, and the camber applies even pressure along its gentle curve.  You wouldn't otherwise be able to get any clamping pressure in the middle like that.

Scratching an Itch

I'm almost to the point where I can make the floor boards.  They're going to be made out of poplar and shiplapped.  On my tool cabinet I just beveled the mating edges, but for this project I wanted to try adding a bead.

I've been looking at buying a beading tool for awhile and read a dozen or so articles about how to make my own and since Lee Valley isn't offering a free shipping event right now and I have to wait for more wood to be delivered I figured I might as well give it a shot.

It only took me two nights.  I bought a couple chainsaw files and a big pair of snips and cut a rectangle off the end of an old handsaw blade.  I polished that bit of metal on my sharpening stones to a mirror and cut the half-circles in a few seconds.  I need slip stones to hone the curvy parts but even with my rough attempt with rolled up sandpaper it does a pretty nice job.  :-)

This is based on the one Garrett Hack used in his video.

I tapped 1/4" screw threads into the block of wood to pinch the blade in place. 

I made a mallet.

A wooden mallet.

Hammer time!

I had some quartersawn white oak leftover from Brandi's mirror so I laminated a couple bits of that together and made this in a couple hours. I wish I spent more time on the handle ergonomics, but it works fine and gets the job done.

Dovetail Markers

Dovetail Markers and a Saddle Square

Dovetail stuff

In preparation for starting to cut dovetails by hand, I decided to make (instead of buy) dovetail markers. These little doohickies allow you to draw the angle for the pin or tail while also drawing the corresponding plum line without having to switch between a bevel and a square.  Since I wasn't sure which angle I preferred, I decided to make one of each of the popular ones.

In order to determine the angles, I didn't use a protractor. I hate math. I just drew a few points on a piece of scrap wood. From the corner, I marked a point 1" in, and another point 6" up, and 8" up. Then I used my bevel gauge to connect those dots for the 1:6 and 1:8 markers.

For the 14 degree marker (a popular dovetail angle) I had to do a little more work. I don't own a protractor, so I opened up Sketchup and drew a 14 degree angle, then drew a guide 1" over, and figured out how far it was up the point where the guide meets the angle (just over 4"). So I went back to my scrap wood and drew that.

Using the bevel gauge, I transferred the lines onto these little blocks of wood. Then I lined them up with the miter saw blade and cut them. They turned out perfectly. That miter box is awesome.

Because I had extra scrap leftover I decided to make a 90degree saddle square. These are handy for when you need to draw a line that wraps around the edges of a board.

Workshop Helpers

From left to right: Shooting Board, and two Bench Hooks

Helpers

Holding wood still while you work on it is step one. Bench hooks, holdfasts, vises, and clamps hold wood still. Making square cuts is step two. The shooting board has a 90 degree fence so you can plane the end of a board squarely.

I had some scrap plywood so I whipped these up in a few minutes. They work. As that was all the thought they required, that's all the thought I put into them.

"Schwarzian" Saw Benches

English-style "Schwarzian" Saw Benches

A couple saw benches

I made these with some scrap Hem-Fir that was leftover from my workbench project. I followed Christopher Schwarz's plan from Popular Woodworking Magazine, though I'll admit I found the instructions confusing and the design lacking.

Compared to the other stuff I've been building, these saw benches are pretty flimsy, and while I understand the need for a simple design (Schwarz was teaching a class where you build a saw bench with nothing but hand tools in a single day), I guess I just don't agree that the shortcuts were worth the end result.

He has since tweaked the design a few times, but if I did this project over again, I would have added cross beams to keep the legs apart and stable. I'm not a huge fan of the screws and plywood either.

But in the end, it gets the job done and the saw bench is perfectly functional. It doesn't require more thought than has already gone into it and it won't be replaced unless it breaks.

I think my complaints about the instructions being confusing is that I'm mostly just not accustomed to following plans in general.  I had a similar problem following Norm's plan for the blanket chest.  My typical process is that I'll build an entire project in Google Sketchup, developing my own understanding of how everything fits together, and exporting a cut list of parts before I ever touch a single piece of wood.

Following someone else's step by step instructions doesn't allow for the big picture understanding and it feels like I'm blindfolded, being guided through an obstacle course by a back seat driver.  I don't find it very comfortable and I end up getting frustrated when I don't understand the next step.

Roubo Workbench

I got into handtools

I'm not really sure where this idea came from. I've been reading a lot of woodworking magazines and books, watching entire backlogs of woodworking tv shows and instructional videos... Somewhere along the way I ended up adopting the notion that, for certain operations, hand tools are more efficient, safer, quieter, and more enjoyable than power tools.

A handplaned surface is ready for finish.

No sanding required. And I hate sanding. That might be reason enough to buy a handplane, but it wasn't the main reason I was drawn to hand tool use.

I hate routers

I really hate them. I hate the noise they make, the dust they make, and I never feel in control of this particular tool. All too often after I've spent a dozen hours creating a part, I pick up a router to put on some finishing, decorative touches, only to have the tool slip, blow out the end grain, the depth stop vibrates loose, the bit slips in the collar, or I don't move fast enough and burn the wood. That's a lot of baggage for something that's just supposed to give me a decorative touch.

On the Mission Storage Coffee Tables, each table had 4 drawers. Each drawer had half-blind dovetails in the front and through dovetails in the back. My brother owns one of those big fancy Leigh dovetail jigs. He loves it. I spent 5 hours one Saturday setting it up, making test cut after test cut after test cut until I was confident that I had it set up correctly for my parts. Then I took two more test cuts just to make sure. By the time I finished dovetailing all of my parts the clock stopped at ~8.5 hours. And while I'm a beginner at the Leigh jig, I had a similar experience on the first coffee table I built, using a much simpler Craftsman dovetail jig. It still took me 5 hours, and that was for a single drawer.

So in my free time, I started watching videos of other woodworkers cutting their dovetails by hand. I started noticing how different handcut dovetails look compared to router-cut ones. I drank the kool-aid and fell victim to the snobbery that true fine furniture has hand cut, delicate dovetails.

Eventually, after reading and watching enough Christopher Schwarz, Frank Klausz, and Rob Cosman, I became convinced that cutting dovetails by hand can, and usually is faster than fighting with a temperamental router and fussy jig. Faster, and a helluva lot safer and cleaner. It even looks more enjoyable. (Seriously, watch that Frank Klausz video.)

The other reason...

I can't fit power tools in my non-walk-out basement. So if I want to do any woodworking at home, hand tools is really my only option.

So I bought a few planes, got a bunch of tools as gifts for Christmas and birthday presents and the first thing you learn when you have hand tools is that you really need a workbench. I spent the next few months learning about and eventually building this particular style workbench.

I'm a newbie, so at the very least, I know that I don't know very much...

And since I know that I don't know what I'm doing, I hazard on the side of being a cheapskate when I can. I don't think it makes sense to buy mediocre tools, but when it came time to buy lumber for the workbench, I picked Hem-Fir.  This was mostly an informed decision from an article Schwarz wrote about a $100 workbench in which he described the strength and stiffness of construction-grade lumber and how, for the budget-conscious, it's a perfectly good material for building workbenches.

Now that the bench is done, I notice that it dents pretty easily. While I was building it I noticed how many knots it has. But I got a 400lb workbench out of $150 worth of lumber by adopting the logic that if I mess it up, I'm only out $150. If I decide I want different wood later on, I'm only out $150. Or I can keep it as a second sibling bench (if I actually had room for it). Or I can sell it. Or I can hand it down to one of my brothers. I have options. $150 doesn't hurt. If I had invested $750 in ash and screwed the whole thing up, or decided I don't want to do hand tool woodworking after all, then I'd be a little more uncomfortable. But $150 is easy.

I'm not super disappointed in my decision to use Hem-Fir. The bench is super functional and does almost everything I want it to do. And since I'm a newbie, I don't even know how to use it to my best advantage. I'm still learning here and there when I see other woodworkers using their benches.

The vises were made by Benchcrafted.  I decided to go with them because they kept winning the Tool of the Year awards with various woodworking magazines.