Tag: cedar

A Little Jig

On By MVFlaim FurnituremakerIn WorkshopLeave a comment

One day last year, my wife and I were driving through Amish country when we stopped at a yard sale. The Amish woman had a long cedar log she was selling for $10.00. We had one of those IKEA storage cube cabinets with cloth drawers the size of milk crates in my truck. We were planning on donating to St Vincent DePaul but asked if she wanted to trade for it. The woman had a few kids, and we figured she could use it for storing away all the kids’ stuff. She agreed to the trade, so I took it out of the bed of the truck and put it by garage. She was tickled to have it.

The log sat in my basement for months until Anita asked me last week if I could cut it up into chunks so she could use them in her booth to put topary plants on them. The different heights add visual appeal to the booth, and it helps her sell more plants

I sliced the log into small pieces as best as I could on the band saw, but the irregular shape of the log made it tough to cut the top and bottom parallel to each other. I sanded the bottom on my oscillating edge sander and then tried to sand the top parallel to the bottom by eye as best as I could. It didn’t work the best, and I figured there had to be a better way.

I looked at my go-to jig book, “Making Woodwork Aids & Devices” by Robert Wearing, but I didn’t see a jig that would work for my task so I kept thinking about it until I came up with this.

It’s basically an 1 1/4″ cube with a 1/2″ hole drilled through the middle. Then another 1/2″ thick piece of wood with 1/2″ hole drill in it and a slit cut to the hole so that a bolt could tighten the piece onto a 1/2″ dowel. At the end of the piece is a 9/32″ hole drilled so that I could shove a pencil into it.

After I assembled the jig, I set the pencil to the lowest part of the top of the log and gently scribe a pencil line all around the log. It’s the same principle as leveling chair legs but on a larger scale.

Once the line is scribed all around the log, I carefully sanded it to the line on my oscillating edge sander. I’m sure a random orbital sander will work, but this thing makes quick work of it.

After a few minutes, all of the log pieces are flush and level. It’s a stupid simple jig, and I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere, I just can’t remember where.

Here are the stumps in action. Makes the display of plants look much nicer, which increases her sales.

A Bird Feeder with a Past

On By MVFlaim FurnituremakerIn Workshop2 Comments

Two years ago, our house got hit by a tornado. One of saddest part from all of the damage was the destruction of the shed I built a few years ago. I was so devastated, I never rebuilt it. As I tore down the shed, I kept some of the lumber hoping I would use the wood to rebuild a new one however, with 2x4s costing $7.00 a piece, I never rebuilt it and left the wood on top of the shed’s wooden platform.

Along with shed being destroyed, a bird feeder was also destroyed in the storm. My wife, Anita, finally wanted a new feeder in the yard so I decided to use some of the cedar from the shed to make a new bird feeder. I cleaned up the boards, removed the nails and milled up some boards from the trim I kept from the shed.

After the boards were milled, I glued some boards together and started cutting up the parts for the bird feeder. The feeder was so simple to build I believe I built one just like it in the 9th grade.

After a couple of hours of work, the bird feeder was installed back on top of the post. The birds are happy again and I gave new life to part of my destroyed shed. This summer, we’re finally planning on building a greenhouse on top of the platform.

Building a Shed Part XII

On By MVFlaim FurnituremakerIn Workshop4 Comments

While browsing through the Weaver Barn catalogue, Anita saw this cool looking arbor over a couple of doors. We decided that an arbor like this would look really nice over our side window.

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To begin construction on the arbor, I grabbed some scrap cedar I had from building the shed and made about 24 slats. The slats were about 1  3/4″ wide by 13″ long with a little 1″ arch at one end.

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Designing simply from a picture can be tough, so I grabbed a scrap piece of 6″ wide cedar, cut out a 4″ diameter arch and placed it around my corbel to see how to design the overall arbor.

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The distance between the corbels is 6′ with the overall length of the arbor being 87″. I originally planned 25 slats about 3 1/2″ apart, but Anita thought it was a little too many slats.

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We ended up deciding to use 21 slats 4″ apart. I wanted the slats to fit in place so I cut some dadoes in the wood to house the slats. Using  my dovetail saw, router plane, and rasps, I easily cut the dadoes in no time.

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I cut a small dado on each of the slats as well and test fitted the arbor together.

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Since the slats had a dado, I decided the corbels should have dadoes as well to keep everything in line.

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I also wanted the arbor to fit inside the corbels so I cut notches in both the front and back where the corbels would go.

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I fit everything back together and drilled the slats to fit on the front and back. I used stainless steel screws so that they wouldn’t stain the arbor like galvanized screws would.

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Dry fitting everything together the arbor started to come together nicely, so it was time to stain it.

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I stained the arbor the same Benjamin Moore Cedar Bark stain we used on the shed.

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However, after living with the color of the stain on the shed for a few weeks, we weren’t too happy with the color. So, after the first coat of Cedar Bark from Sherwin Williams, Anita mixed in a pint of Leather Saddle Brown with a touch of Fresh Brew stain from Benjamin Moore. Since all three stains were water based, they mixed together well.

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After I applied the new coat, the cedar took on a much warmer color. We were very pleased.

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Anita helped me install the arbor so I don’t have any pictures of it being installed as I wasn’t in the mood to tell her to hold onto the arbor while I stop and take some pictures. I started out measuring the length of the window frame and calculated how much on each end the corbels would need to be in order for the arbor to be in the middle of the window. The window frame was 67″ while the distance between the corbels was 72″. That left me with 2 1/2″ on each side of the window. I marked the spot and then decided how far above the window I wanted the arbor to be. Once I got that measurement, which was 2 1/2″ as well, I nailed the left corbel in place with 2 1/2″ galvanized pneumatic nails. Then, I placed the arbor on top of the corbel, leveled it, and then shot nails in the arbor itself, attaching it through the siding into the studs of the shed. I then screwed my stainless steel screws through my pocket holes attaching the arbor to the corbel to tighten everything up. Next, I took the right corbel and stuck it up into the recess of the arbor, nailed and screwed it up just as I did to the left one. Finally, I screwed and nailed the back side of the arbor to the shed.

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As you can see, I think we made a good decision darkening the cedar stain. The cedar looks richer and blends better with the gray paint.

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Building a Shed Part X

On By MVFlaim FurnituremakerIn Workshop2 Comments

The same weekend it was too hot to work on the shed, was the same weekend I built the corbels. I sell to 26 Lowe’s and 14 Home Depot’s in the Cincinnati-Dayton area, and in all those stores, only one of them carried cedar 2 x 4’s. So, I’m lucky to be building these corbels out of cedar instead of douglas fir. I glued two cedar 2 x 4’s together to give me a post 3″ thick. I then cut the posts to 25″, 25″ and 46″.

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I sized the 25″ long posts to two 12″ lengths. I then built a sled for my table saw so I could cut one of the ends to a 45 degree chamfer. The stop on the sled made sure all the cuts were the same on each side.

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Flipping the post over with each cut, I quickly made the soft point for the front of the corbels.

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I made eight of these pieces. Two of the eight, I will save for a trellis that I will build over the side window.

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I then took the 46″ long pieces and cut them to 12″ long with 45 degree cuts on each end.

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I got lucky with my first post as I was able to avoid a large knot in the middle.

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The woodworking Gods were with me that day as I was able to avoid another large knot on the other post.

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I wanted a 45 degree chamfer on the bottom of the back of the corbels, so I moved the stop over on my sled and reattached it in the proper place.

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Using exterior wood glue, 3″ deck screws and 1 1/2″ long, 1/4″ crown galvanized staples, I fastened the hell out of the corbels as I built them.

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Eight corbels are all the same. I took the best two corbels and set them aside for the trellis as it will be stained and not painted.

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When it cooled down, I fitted the corbels into the soffit. I used a level to accurately scribe where I needed to cut and then used my Fein Multi-Master to cut away the wood.

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As luck would have it, the width of my level was pretty much the correct location of where I needed to cut. I attached the corbels to the trim of the shed with 1 1/2″ long 15 gauge pneumatic nails.

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After a few minutes of work, one side of the shed was done.

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The shed is getting really close to being complete. We just need to build a platform in the front for a step, build and attach the trellis over the side window, build shelving inside, paint/stain the shed, add landscaping, and possibly add electric. Shit, we’re not that close after all. HAHA.

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Building a Shed Part IX

On By MVFlaim FurnituremakerIn Workshop2 Comments

I’ve been as motivated to work while it’s 100 degrees as I was when it was 30 degrees, so the shed has been sitting the past few weeks acclimating to the sun. The good news is that it has given me time to work in my nice cool basement workshop building the doors and corbels. I bought ten more 8′ long 8″ wide siding and slid five of them together to figure out how much to cut off the end boards to make a nice centered door.

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After figuring how much to trim off the end boards, I clamped them together and stapled 4″ cedar trim across the top and bottom. I used 1/4″ crown galvanized staples 1 1/2″ long.

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I attached the sides and center rail the same way. I used a liberal amount of Titebond III exterior glue to help hold everything together.

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I flipped the door over and did the same thing on the other side. I left the door over hang the inside trim about 2″ so that the bottom of the door would be flush with the bottom of the siding. I attached one board on the back at the diagonal to strengthen the door.

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I built the other door exactly the same way with the only difference being the diagonal board was going the other way.

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After the weather cooled down a bit, I took the doors out to the shed to see how they fit. In a perfect world they would fit perfectly, however I don’t live in a perfect world and I’ve never built anything perfectly. So, I had to trim the doors down to size about 1/4″ and shave down one end about 1/8″ less than the top.

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After fiddling around with the doors, they fit well enough for me to be happy. I used large hand screw clamps and clamped the inside of the doors to the frame opening. I then attached three hinges per door while they were clamped.

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After they were hung, they stuck a little bit at the top. I grabbed my block plane and shaved away the tops of the doors so that they would open and close freely.

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Installing the locking handle was a breeze. A simple hole drilled through the door allowed the stem to pass through. I then attached the inside handle with a set screw.

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I needed the left door to stay put while the right door was locked, so I drilled a 5/8″ hole through the floor and used two-part epoxy to glue a small piece of 1/2″ copper pipe inside the hole.

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I then attached the door hardware to the left door so that the bar would fit nicely in the hole.

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I did the same thing for the top of the door except I used a 1/4″ copper coupler instead of a 1/2″ pipe.

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I trimmed out the inside of the door the same way I did with the windows. I took a 2 x 6 and ripped into three pieces that were 3/8″ thick by 2″ wide and attached them with finish nails.

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I’m happy with the way the doors turned out. Now on to the corbels.

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Building a Shed Part VIII

On By MVFlaim FurnituremakerIn WorkshopLeave a comment

Moving forward with the shed, I installed the large fifteen pane window on the right side of the shed. Being so big and heavy, I screwed some scrap siding boards to the corners so I could lay the window in the frame and shim around the window until it was plum and square.

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With the window secure, I used scrap siding for the inside of the window frame and nailed it to the 2 x 4 framing.

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I then started to build the window trim by taking away one piece of the scrap wood and replacing it with 4″ wide cedar. I nailed it to the siding with 15 gauge galvanized finish nails. The bottom and top of the trim over hang the sides by 1″ on each side, with the top angled at 10 degrees. I then nailed a piece of cedar to the top for a little added detail.

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Putting up the trim was one of the easiest parts of building the shed so far. The cuts were simple and straight forward. Home Depot even had 3 1/4″ wide cedar boards so that I didn’t have to rip  4″ boards down to wrap the corners properly.

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I nailed the trim around the two front windows very much the same way as the side window.

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The only difference is that I had to cut a notch on the side trim boards to fit around the window sill. I had a follower tell me on my last post that I need to add a drip edge to the bottom of the sill to prevent water from going inside the shed wall. I’ll do that soon by either cutting a shallow groove or a gluing bead of wood underneath the bottom.

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Here’s a quick shot of the side finished with the trim. It’s starting to really look like a shed now. I just have to install three  corbels around the roof line and a cedar trellis above the window. Stay tuned.

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I wanted to work on the door frame, so I took two of the 2 x 6’s that I used to make the scaffolding and ripped them on the table saw.

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I cut almost half way through the wood on the table saw and then finished up the cut on the band saw.

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After they were ripped, I planed them down to 3/8″ on the planer. I only need one of the shorter boards so the other one will provide heat to make S’mores.

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I attached the boards to the inside of the front door frame. The boards did two things. First, it cleaned up the edges with a full piece of wood, especially on the top. The second is it kept the top trim of the door level with the top trim of the windows because I used 3/8″ wood to make the window frames as well.

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The trim has been installed around the door frame with a similar top detail in the middle. Now it’s on to make the two front doors.

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