Trinket Box

For the Trinket Box I wanted to use different woods for the lid/stand, base, front/back and the sides. First I cut out the front and back out of Sapele (200x140x14mm) and the sides out of Oak (350x140x14mm). Then I marked and cut out the dovetails on the sides using dovetail template, steel rule, marking knife, dovetail saw and chisel. Then using the sides, marking knife, dovetail saw and chisel I marked and cut out the front and back to fit them together. After doing a dry fit and I adjusted it to fit, I made the base out of MDF (340x190x6mm) and ash veneer using PVA, a veneer jig and a veneer press. I used the router table for a groove for the base to fit and adjusted the groove with a rebate plane to make 6mm MDF + the veneer fit. Cleaned up the base and did another dry fit using clamps, check for square using squaring rod. Then I glued and sash clamp, check for square using squaring rod again and clean off the excess glue before it dries. While that dried I made the plinth sides X2 (220x34x18mm) and the front and back (380x34x18mm) out of Ash, using the table router and a moulder cutter (of my choice)

Shaker Table

At college I have started making a shaker table with one small drawer made from European Oak and Sapele. For the legs, sides, front rails and back oak will be used, I am making the drawer sides and backs from oak, also I am thinking of making the drawer bottom with oak, and the draw front is made with sapele. I chose oak and sapele because for the legs I wanted a lighter wood and the other option was pine and I would prefer using a hard wood.

The first thing I did was mark out the tenons (for the hunched mortise and Tenon) on the legs, this was done using a dual marking gauge on the sides and back of the table. Then I cut them out using a Tenon saw, I then cut out the haunch on the top end of the Tenon. After that I marked out the mortise using the Tenon and a dual marking gauge, some people used the mortise machine, but I decided that I wanted to make mine as machine free as I can, however I know that I will have to resort to machines sometimes. So after marking out I used a 6mm mortise chisel and an 18mm bevel chisel to chisel out the mortise. This took time and I do understand with the machine it would be faster but I like the handmade furniture sentiment. I then chiselled out the haunch from the mortise and chiselled it down until it fit in perfectly.

The next thing I did was cut down the rails down. For the bottom rail I made a 2 pin stopped Tenon on each end and then I marked out and mortised the mortise hole. I made a stopped dovetail joint on each of the top rail and made the dovetail housing at the top of each front legs.

After that I made a stencil that tapers 10mm in from 10mm where the sides are, and then marked out on the joint side of the legs. This is where I went wrong because on one of the legs I marked it out on the wrong side, and started cutting down the wrong leg using a band saw, however when I spoke to my tutor he said I would have to start the whole leg again, but I found a way of fixing the leg by putting a long thin piece of oak in the gap, I fixed this by gluing and clamping it until the glue dried. When I was back on track, I band sawed the rest of the legs and planed the tapers with a jack plane.

Then I glued the sides up using P.V.A wood glue, and sash clamps, I also measured the top and the bottom of the legs to make sure it was square. While that was drying I started the box. When it was dry I glued the front and back. When that was dry I planed and scraped what glue off using a smoother plane and a scraper.

The next thing I did was start the drawer so I got some sapele and measure the whole for the drawer and made it the same size. I made the sapele in to the size of the hole where my drawer goes. Then I made the sides and back out of oak and dovetailed the drawer together but before gluing it together I had to make the base. For the base I got a piece of 6mm ply and veneered it with walnut veneer using P.V.A for the glue and a veneer press. After that I used a table router with a 6mm router bit and made a 6mm deep groove on the inside of each side of the drawer for the base to slot into. After that I tapered the edges of the base using a block plane.

I then clamped the drawer together using sash cramps for a dry fit to check for fit and square-ness using a squaring rod. Then when I was happy a glued it up. Then I glued the runners into the table and making sure the drawer fits. Then I added a front to my drawer that over lapped the drawer to stop the drawer from going too far in.

Then I did the top, I used a 35mm strip of sapele in the middle for the top and 2 oak pieces at the side of the sapele, that I glued and together using 4 Sash-cramps (2 on top and 2 underneath) and P.V.A glue. Once it was dry I used a steel scraper to scrape off all excess glue and to smoothen it top out so it would lay flat on top of the legs. After that I did the moulding for the top using a router table. Once I was happy with the top I screwed it from the bottom to attach it.

Once I had finished the assembly, I coated the whole thing in a thick coating of Danish oil and left it for 6 hours to soak in, then I took the excess off and applied a thinner coating every hour or 2, 3 times. Once this was done I did it with wet and dry sand paper to make it smooth.

Dovetail on a Carve

The Butterfly

This is what I'm In the process of making. I designed it myself. Through-out making this I have had to make a few changes to what this image shows. It will be made from Yew, MDF, Oak and different veneers to cover the MDF.

I started this on the 22nd of February, on day one a started making a round template. This is to help make a jig to blend the sides of my drawers. I did this with a long compass to draw the curved line. Then I cut it out use a large coping saw. Then I shaped it with a compass plane and a ...

On the 14th of March. This is what I made with the curved template, I used a router by nailing the template on the 18mm MDF and routered around it to make the jig so I could bend the yew and the MDF for the MDF sides, back and yew front. After I had to glue and nail each of them together using PVA wood glue, but to make sure they were parallel with each other I had to make a jig so it would be straight.


Then on the 28th March I sand papered it so it down so it is even and it won't distort the side, back and front panels. 

John had to help here and made me some bendy MDF from 6mm MDF.

I won :)

Final

So if I had the time this is what I would have as my final piece...

I world have two of these 4 times the size on the wall with my memories they won't both look like this and my class mates memories and a box that is 200mm/200m/300mm with a lid. it would be simple but there would be a toy soldier climbing out and a carving maybe on the side. The box would be on my set of drawers which is my proud-ish memory of the last three years. there would be a pen and some sticky notes or bits of paper on my drawers for people to write their memories.

what else i would put in the memorial?

Well looking back at what I put behind the door a lot of those thing held great memories for me and my class mates. but not I have been thinking and we all have memories from the last three years and I should have added that somewhere in my FMP. looking back I would have made a small box for the people that came to see my work to write down there memories or even put something that makes them remember a great time into the box. (and they could have come get it back or leave an address  and number for me to drop it off (within 2.5 miles))

8/7/15

This was the original idea i had from Anna Louise Parker's lizard piece, and I feel it worked ok but it could have worked better unfortunately I have now ran out of plaster of paris.
















This is the inlaying i tried and it didn't work too bad but because i have been working on a small scale it was hard to scrape the plaster back. but i am not unhappy with the results.

here i dropped the soldier into the plaster and when it dried i was going to take it out but i quite like it being there, for the little cracked man i push a toy man into the plasticine and took it out then i paired the rest of plaster into it and waited for it to set but he cracked.

So i have done both inlaying into the plaster and the idea i had from Anna Parker but they did not work as well as i hoped. so if the next time i try I'm going to give up on that idea. so now I'm looking at the final idea and how i would like it to look.

So now I think simple is better and loss is more so although I did spend all yesterday do what I thought to be what if I make it, it would look like but know I think I need to try out inlaying like I did with the tiles. I also need to try out that thing that I wanted to do to make it look like Anna Parker's work. So that is what i will be doing today.

7/7/15

This is what I have done today, I have been drawing ideas in my book and this is one of them. And I wanted to see how it would look in 3D. So if I'm honest I don't know where to go here...

 

But now looking at this and thinking i think this is too much. so for the final idea I will be making a prototype of a simpler design and making it out of a easy cut wood called Balsa wood but I will still make the base out of grey board because there isn't a big enough piece to make the base as well.