Idea Wind

A little Fine Tuning...

I was working on the heritage door the end of last week, the inside mouldings to be more specific. I was planning on getting into the final front window surrounds over the weekend but things didnt pan out that way due to the fact that my client is actually busier than I am! I should back track and mention that my writing book, the graph paper scribbler I use for all of my wood notes, including all of my templates for the moulding profiles I had made earlier this spring, was left behind in Cape Breton this summer. I knew this for the past few weeks and was trying to set up a time with my client to go over and visit the neighbours house again. Get some new profiles off of the window treatments and finally get this thing done!
Anyhow, because of the world we live in and everybody seems to never have enough time, (myself included) I wasnt able to get the profiles so I spent yesterday re-organising my shop space. It was really getting cramped with the way things were, the door only accessible from one side and one end, my offcuts from the project starting to way in on my fragile sanity; I needed to move my bench back over against the wall and re-jig the doors work station.
I have been using my shop bents (a Krenov inspired work horse) with some off cuts of walnut as runners to span the bents and a thin sheet of luan as my main template for the door. This worked out fine while I made the frame for the door but now that Ive come to fine tuning my miters and mouldings I really needed to beef things up.
Before I was able to really fine tune all of my miters I had to be sure the door was lying as flat as I could make it, and through it all staying perfectly square. A kind of challenge in this small space where every move means moving all of the pieces around again...and again, and again. (have I mentioned I need a bigger shop lately?) So yesterday morning I purchased a sheet of 3/4" plywood and got a few batons of Ipe from a friend, ipe is a South American hardwood that is very heavy, hard and dense. These 2" x 2" x 6 batons will straddle my bents and the plywood will finish the work area. The door with its 1/4" luan template slid easily from my work bench over to this make shift one. The shop bents I made are from hickory, another incredibly hard and dense wood. This turned out to be the perfect species for my shop bents- they really need to be structurally sound around my shop. If we consider that between the oak, the ipe and the plywood alone theyre probably supporting close to 200 lbs!
No worries, theyre working great!
I should mention that the plans and building instructions for these are included in my new book due out in November.
So that was my day yesterday, sweeping and cleaning and pushing and lugging...good for the soul to get things back in a nice state. Cleanliness is what again?
So this morning I spent a few hours going around each one of the panels to insure all of my miters are clean and crisp.
The first thing I needed to do was build a little bench top appliance to securely hold the mouldings as I worked them. Getting them to this level was straight forward between some bench dogs, but now that theyre all mitered...holding them in place while you try to take the lightest shaving off can be a real challenge.






















I had a 2" x 6" x 4 slab of heavy maple and cut out a few miters and batons with some off cuts. These in turn were glued to the surface of the plank and will act as small fences to hold the work pieces in place while I fine tune things. I used some cyanoacrylate glue that sets up in about 10 seconds. This is all that I needed and off I went to fit and tune these door back mouldings. They honestly didnt require a ton of work but a few places I did get out the moulding planes and onto some sandpaper.






















A couple of hours and theyre done. My plan right now is to go over to the clients tomorrow and get those other few profiles...






















Stay tuned.

I realized recently that I have never done a post of just shop photos, where you can see the layout of the various work spaces throughout the buildings on the property. We have been working on it all since 1998 and its grown over time to accommodate a lot of flexible spaces. There is also a stand up attic over the shop that accommodates lumber and veneer up to 12 long and a concrete floor crawlspace with wheelchairs for mobility, where the boiler, air compressor and additional lumber, pattern and jig storage live. Stuff expands to fill it all of course, and we dream about a better/bigger metal shop, but not this week for sure ... maybe sometime though ... Click the photos to enlarge them and enjoy your tour ...
Summer view
Winter view with the finish room on the right
Side porch with a Safety Speed Cut panel saw, lumber and ply storage shed with the blower at the far end, and a separate, free standing shed for sawdust ...
Summer porch use ...typically on Friday afternoons
The interior of the 16 x 22 finish room ... the tv cabinets (scroll down on that post) are still lurking under the big green drop cloth
standing on a stool, looking from east to west ... note dueling table saws with foot operated off switches, nested placement of jointer and planer, and dust collection under the strip oak, radiant heated floor.
looking from east to south showing the sanders (on wheels and the 16 of counters and drawers at workspace one.
radial and chop saw for rough and finish cuts on the same fence system
looking toward workspace #4, on wheels, 42 x 60 with the lathe tools on the back side, and at the outfeed of the sander with a light for defect spotting. The gray table in the foreground has a removable top over a router table on wheels.
workspace two, also on wheels, (behind the headboard), 43 x 84, with a pattern vise, sink and additional 8 bench with a vise.
workspace #1, 44 x 96 x 30 high with power on the four corners, also on wheels. Actually, everything that can be is on wheels.
workspace #3, where I work when Im in the shop.
The cnc upstairs ... best place to see what we do with this is at this link here ... And, if youre wondering how we got all 1400 pounds and 11 feet of it to the second floor here are some photos of that operation .... unbelievable in hindsight ....
workspace upstairs with mortiser, drill press, sander and bandsaw, adjacent to the cnc so Trevor can do two jobs at once.
library in a small hallway between the cnc and the office
my main workspace with computer, phone, fax, scanner, printer and music
southeast end of the office with another computer for Will or Sam to do their CAD drawings and email
a small collection of models in the bathroom
my board of finish samples and hardware for clients when they come ..this photo also works as an email to clients out of the area ...
looking out the office window and door to the pond
with the ducks recently back in town....
The metal shop is at the house, attached to the end of the garage ... More photos here
Looking into the shop with the double doors open ..

I hope to soon add plan view drawings of the shop for my own records but Ill have to do them first ... The woodshop was planned as a workshop, but built as a 3 bedroom two bath house where we lived for two years while we were waiting to sell our former house in Arlington ... I have some good pictures of the shop as a house that Ill post later too ... All for now ... If you made it all the way to here, you might also enjoy these photos HERE showing how we got our 1400 pound cnc machine installed on the second floor. (Through the second story window)