Blog Woods

Ive been writing my way through my adventure repairing a table and single chair owned by a friends grandmother. Something happened that put this piece through the ringer and if you want to survey the original damage and what I had repaired so far you can catch up on all the related posts by checking out HERE.

I had replaced the cleats completely and repaired the leg that had the mounting bolt ripped from it, but the other leg was in a little bit more trouble. It had one of the feet torn from the body.



The foot side of things was easy to take care of. The broken dowels only needed to sawn of flush.


The leg side was a little more complicated. One dowel had been ripped out, chipping out a good amount of the surrounding wood. The best repair I could think of was to remove the broken wood and glue in wood to replace it and bring the surface out to the end of the leg again.


I started to define the sides of the section to be removed with my tenon saw.



Then I went after it with a chisel and a mallet until I had cleaned out a rectangular section.


Then I used some of the poplar scrap from the cleats and glued a couple strips in place, matching up face grain to face grain. A little glue to set the repair and I left it sit and cure overnight.


The next day, a couple swipes of a plane and the repair was flush with the leg and as good as new.


I drilled for the new dowels but clamping up the feet on the leg was going to be difficult with the curves of the feet. As much as I dislike jigs, I had to cut a couple simple ones to make the clamping go easier. I used some scrap pine and scribed the curves of the feet. A little bandsaw time and the clamping jigs were cut.


With one on each foot, I would have square surfaces to put my clamps on.


I clamped another couple pine scraps above the curved clamping jigs to keep them from sliding up under the clamps pressure.


A little more dry time on the glue and I could attach the cleats to the top of the legs.


Then reattach the legs to the bottom of the table.


Flip the table back over and test to make sure the drop leaf mechanisms work well and we can call the table done.


But I still had the chair to worry about.

Ratione et Passionis
Oldwolf

Im on the final touch up coats on the mantle, but here are some pictures of the backside of the mantle and the corbles.
You can see that the backside of the mantle is unfinished, but I have the french cleat installed. You can now better understand how this cleat works. The opposing piece will be screwed to the wall, and will provide a good amount of support for this heavy piece! The corbles will do the rest of the support work, and the mantle wont move.

The mantle is scheduled to be installed tomorrow!

The mantle is finally installed, and it looks beautiful! Here are the installation pictures...
The first is a picture of the corbles being installed. The corbles have two mounting screws on the backsides. They will take some of the weight. Ive added an additional 3" screw through the top of the corbles to help with some of the "pull" of the mantle.
I then measured and marked for the wall portion of the french cleat and installed it. After that, the mantle simply slid right into place! Because of the way I set up the cleat initially, I was able to adjust the mantle left and right as needed!

The next step will be to finish off the surrounding trimwork. I have about 3-4 days left on this project and I will be finished!!!

Heres how I make simple but decorative boxes - I am making two that will be Christmas gifts this year.
I am using a piece of cherry, and have prestained it to make the whole process a little easier. Ive run it through the router on both sides to make a 1/4" dado joint that will receive the top and bottom panels.
Ive made two blocks, one short and one long. These marking blocks represent the sides and front and back lengths of the box, and make it easy to not have to measure for my lengths.
I cut all the sides in a continuous series out of the wood, so that the grain pattern will follow around - matching up the grain on the corners looks pretty cool!
Then, I located and cut biscuit slots with the biscuit jointer. Ive glued the corners and inserted the top and bottom panels, and secured the box with a strap clamp, making sure it is square.
After this dries, I will cut the lid off on the table saw, and secure the top to the lid...

With the description of Mike Pekovichs Shop done, we now bring the tour, hosted by the man himself.