Idea Wind

Laying out door panels with a panel gauge.



Ripping close to the line - just a little work left for the jointer plane.



How a knifed line is better than a penciled line - it gives you visible feedback as you approach the line - including whether you are planing the edge square.





Marking one end square to the edge.



Again the knife line tells all - close, but not perfect.



Some low angle block plane work - now its perfect. I like that glue joint too - the time spent with the jointer before glue-up was well worth it.



Heres a short series on using a square and marking knife together. Its simple really, but until I learned this trick, my accuracy suffered.

Marking the panel to final length - the folding rule is more accurately used on edge.



Keep the knife point in the mark and slide the square down until the knife stops it - simple and accurate.



Turning the corner (arris) with the knife.



Using the corner mark to align the square for marking the edge.



Over to the saw bench for cutting to final length.



Trying to visualize the cupboard with doors - looking for some light at the end of the tunnel - still a long way to go...

James and Jenny decided they wanted to work on some projects and I was glad to provide the shop and assistance. We’ve been having a great time of it!

Our first meeting was dinner and design. James decided to make a folding book stand and Jenny is making a necklace holder based on a shaker “key board” design. After dinner, we went out into the shop to get a little hands-on time with the tools and techniques they will be using.

Last night we were back at it, and the actual projects took flight! It was great getting to spend shop time with younger people (not that Im old or anything...) interested in learning to use handtools.

Here they are laying-out their pieces. James is using squares and a knife to mark his pine board for the chiseling and sawing that will free the two interlocking parts of his book stand. Jenny is using a marking gauge to get ready for re-thicknessing her Doug Fir with a scrub plane.

Here Jenny is scrubbing down almost to the gauge mark, and then she will finish up with a jack plane.

James is chopping and paring the hinge joints in his white pine.

And we ended up the night with Jenny doing some resawing – something she needed to do to get two parts out of one, and a small preview of James’ next step.

We had a great time, and I can’t wait until our next evening in the shop!