Tumblehome sea chest 2

I decided to do a little research prior to building this chest, and this time I turned my attention to Germany to see if there were any differences compared to my earlier studies.
This is not phd grade research, so as soon as I find a serious looking page, I pretty much leave it at that.
German page on sea chests

One difference which is very visible, is the small shelf running along the back side of the sea chest. This is a feature I haven't seen anywhere else. According to the text it was also used in other chests as well.
It was used for savings, and according to the home page, it is the foundation for a well established phrase in German meaning that one has got some savings: "Etwas auf der hohen Kante". Literally meaning: Something on the high edge.

The open chest in the middle of the page has got the small shelf at the right side of the chest, indicating that the owner of the chest was a left hander.
The small shelf (hohen Kante) can be seen in this picture as well.

I cut the last set of dovetails for the chest itself, and I even remembered taking a picture of the sawing.
Using a hack saw is easy (for me at least), there is an appropriate weight to the tool, and the blade is equivalent to a rip filed saw. The toothing might be on the fine side for some, but you can get different blades so you can experiment. I am using a 24 ppi blade because that was just what I had in the workshop. The kerf is a little wider compared to a real dovetail saw, but not wider than the kerf you would get by using e.g. a bow saw.

I tested the assembly by pressing the dovetails together half way by hand, and they look decent. some glue and a little bit of planing and I think they might even look fair.

Due to a bunker operation, I couldn't get more than 20 minutes in the shop, but it was enough for me to cut the tails on the last board and do the test assembly. I have brought the pieces with me to the ECR (Engine control room), so I can mark out the position for the small shelf.
To be efficient, I try to do stuff like that whenever I have a spare moment where I have to stay put in the ECR anyway. That way I can use the precious workshop minutes on putting steel to the wood.

The dovetail sawing set up.

The test assembly (dovetails pressed half way).

Tumblehome sea chest

During the building of the small fairy tale bed, I found myself dreaming of making something real again. I know that a doll bed is for real, but somehow I found myself constantly drawing small tumblehome sea chests on every scrap piece of paper lying around.

The other day we received some stainless steel tubes that came strapped to a nice wide board, so suddenly I had 18' of a 6" x 1" spruce board at my hands..

The board was transformed into some 12" wide panels that could be used for the build.

I have decided to try to make as quick a build as possible, so there will be no secret compartments or fancy metal working involved.
One of the reasons is that it is not easy to plan some regular woodworking out here, the other is that I would like to finish the chest before going home.

The chest will be smaller than original sea chests to make it easier for me to transport it home, and because I find it easier to find use for smaller chests in the household compared to large chests. The chest should end up being around 24" x 16" with a height of 13-14" depending on how deep I make the skirt and how thick the lid will be.

Today I cut the panels to length and started on the dovetails. Normally I prefer dovetailing with tails first, but due to the lack of decent work holding out here, I do it pins first. For this build I have chosen to use a ratio of 1:6 for the angle of the pins/tails.
The design will be a tumblehome sea chest with canted sides and canted ends.

Chopping out the waste between the pins

Test assembly of the first corner

And they lived happily forever after..

I planed some grooves in the sides and the ends. Then I planed the bottom so that it could fit into the grooves. 

Everything was sanded and the corners were sawn of the bottom to make room for the posts.

I started by glueing up the headboard, and put in a small headless brad to reinforce things a bit. Then I did the same thing to the foot end of the bed.

The sides were attached to the posts of the headboard and the bottom was slid in. After that the foot end of the bed was attached. 

All that is needed now are a bunch on mattresses, a pea and a princess. Then the fairy tale can begin over and over again in the mind of my niece.

The fairy tale bed on the floor of the control room.

What did I learn about the build:

-It is a quick build that can be made together with children if it has to be.

-Nailing the bottom on will probably give a more stout construction, but either my bottom wasn't wide  enough, or the ends were too wide.

-A little paint and some gold enamel on the crown will make the bed more "royal", after all princesses do like pink, cream and gold colours (as far as I remember from when my daughter was younger).

-I had to struggle some to find the motivation for this build. I have to accept the fact that I prefer making chests and slightly larger pieces. So I guess that I will have to give in to that feeling and start making something along those lines.

Fairy tale woodworking 2

After some busy days, I managed to get a little time in the workshop this evening. I have now made the posts for the bed along with the headboard and the footboard (if that is the name?) and the sides.

The posts each have two mortises for receiving the sides and ends.

I decided to try to make some acorn shaped tops on the posts, but I'm not quite sure how they will look once they have been sanded.

The next step is to make some grooves for attaching the bottom of the bed, and then off course to make the bottom.

After that it should be a matter of sanding the parts and assemble the bed.

I have made a carving of a small princess' crown on the head board as a decoration, that way the bed can not be mistaken for an ordinary doll bed.

Some of the mortises and tenons are a bit too loose, but I intend to ad some small nails to reinforce the joint anyway.

The preliminary assembly.

Fairy tale woodworking

Once upon a time a woodworker was asked by his wife to make a small bed.

The bed was supposed to be the size of a doll bed, but not of any specific size.

The plan of the wife was to present this little bed to a very young niece as a present for her to play with.

Along with the bed, the wife was planning to make several small mattresses and a small doll with a princess' crown on her head. At one side of one of the several mattresses there would be sewn a small green round object - A pea.

With the bed, the mattresses, the princess and the pea, the young niece should be able to play with the things in a way that was already described in an existing fairy tale.

Now two questions arise:
What fairy tale could that be?
Will the woodworker be able to undertake such a task while on board his ship?

The last question is probably the hardest, but lets see in a couple of days.

Barnsley glue up

After approximately a week of making mortises and tenons, I was finally ready for gluing up the lower frame of the Barnsley Hayrake table that I am making.

I accidentally turned one end upside down, but luckily the joints were OK, I guess that I managed to execute the joints rather precisely since I was able to get by with this small stunt.

Large complex flue ups tend to scare me a little. And this one even featured odd angles that couldn't be pressed with the use of a clamp. In theory I should have made a dry assembly first, but I haven't got any drawbore pins, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

I made the pegs out of some old oak that I have lying around. The wedges for the tenons were also made out of oak. I like the contrast of the darker oak compared to the reddish larch.

The next thing to do is to make a chamfer on all the straight parts of the frame and on the legs.
In addition to this, the legs need to have a groove cut in the upper end for receiving the stiffener for the tabletop.

Laying out the parts before the glue up.

The frame glued up, 

Finally back in the workshop

After a stressful period at sea, I made it home a little more than a week ago. I had 3.5 great days at home until I unexpectedly received an SMS with a hotel booking in Norway..
It seemed no one at the company had bothered to tell me that I had been booked for a 5 day course in Dynamic Positioning system maintenance in Norway! So I had to spend more time away from my family just after getting home. The worst thing is that the course wasn't very good and should only have lasted 2 or three days at the most. So all in all, a sad waste of time.

Today we had Asgers class mates over for a late celebration of his birthday, this involved driving various vehicles ranging from a garden tractor to a motorcycle with a sidecar. All the kids liked it and had a great time. After the supper I was able to make it into the workshop to finally continue my build of the Barnsley Hayrake table.

I made a mortise for the two arms of the central lower stretcher. And a mortise and tenon for the cross piece at the end of the aforementioned stretcher. I had almost one and a half hours out there, and it almost recharged my internal batteries. Woodworking is a great stress reliever to me.

Tomorrow I hope to continue and maybe even finish one end of the lower stretcher.

I just stumbled over this old picture of my daughter Laura and our old dog.

The fruits of a nice evening in the workshop.