New project: A bathroom vanity.

As shown at the end of my last post, my next project is a bathroom vanity.
With all the situation regarding the pandemic evolution of the famous infamous COVID-19, I am working from home since last week and for an unlimited duration. I was thinking that this would give me more time for woodworking as I am saving many hours in transportation but I was wrong. My workload increased with all the situations I need to care of so as a result I do not have more time in any way.
I am also glad that I went out to buy all the wood I need for my project as starting tomorrow all stores will be closed for at least the next 3 weeks.

This said I started the project by laminating the counter-top of the vanity. To make it I am using some left over from my previous TV stand project so it will be made by assembling four 2" thick pine boards.

The boards to be assembled.

After having planed each pair of side straight for gluing, I did dry fit to be sure I was ready to proceed.

Dry fit before going further.

When I was all set with everything easily reachable I went for gluing.

The boards glued waiting to dry.

When dry I removed clamps, cleaned any extra glue, planed the top to thickness and smoothed it.

Smoothing the top.

To smooth the top I used my Millers Falls #10 that I rehabbed recently. I love this plane so much. It is heavier than the #9 and really slides smooth through the wood without effort, a real pleasure.

I ended with a nice thick slab for the top and a nice big pile of shavings.

The top silky smoothed...

...and a pile of shavings.

The next step was to cut most of parts to size, this made my evening busy.

A pile of parts cut to size.

Next was to tackle the two front doors. These doors will be made of a pine frame enclosing a birch raised panel. I first tackled the raised panels. This is the first time I try to make a raised panel by hand and birch being a quite hard wood I did not expect it to be an easy task.

After marking both faces, I began with making the tongue all around the panel that will fit in the frame groove.

Working the tongue with my Record #778.

For this I used my record #778 and I was surprised how well that wood was workable. Harder than pine it offers more resistance to the blade and cut clean and smooth, even cross grain.

Tongue done on to sides.

When tongue were done, I use my Record 311 & 042 to plane the created angle in a slope that raises right to the line I marked previously.

Using shoulder/rabbet planes to create the raising slope.

This result in a 1/2" tongue followed with a 1" raising slope.

On raised panel done, one to go.

In no time I finally got my two raised panels done.

Both raised panels done.

I have been very surprised about how pleasant it is to work with birch. First I love the smell of that wood and how much it is figured. I worked with it using power tool in the past but never tried with hand tools until today. It is planing very well, of course with sharp tools but like for any wood, and you don't risk any ding and far less split than wood like pine. Only negative point is the price tag if you want a planed board, a 6"x1"x8' planed board is sold for about 35$ up here so better not to waste it!

Next was to take care of the door frame, back to working with pine.
I first planed all the 1/2" deep grooves in stiles and rails using my small record 043.

Planing grooves on stiles.

I checked if this was fitting the raised panels properly.

Checking raised panel fitting.

I then cut the tenons on the rails that will fit in the stile's groove.

Cutting tenons.

When done I did a dry fit of the door to get a preview of the end result.

Preview of the end result.

Next I will start with making side panels and cutting groove and tenons on the remaining parts but this will be a different story.

Addition to my shop

After having finished my last project I decided to build some additional shelves for my shop. I was fed up to see all my planes taking my workbench space so it was time to sort that out. 

I built this on the same design as my other shelves for my braces and hand drills. Unfortunately I did not think about taking much pictures about the construction.

Gluing up the last pieces

For this one I added some support that will rest on the workbench below. The shelf itself is quite heavy but with the addition of all the plane weight I thought it was preferable to have this resting of some surface instead of putting all the strength on the wall, even if screwed in the inner studs.

At the end this is the final result.

Final setup.

Close-up

The shelves are built around my screen and this is where vintage classic tools meet with technology. I find a screen to be a very convenient tool to display a schema or plan of your project. It is easy to take a take a picture of your plan  with your phone if you draw it on paper, share your phone screen to the TV screen and you have a big size display board.

Now onto my net project. I need to build a bathroom vanity for my master bedroom. For this I came up with something that will schematically look like that:

First draft

The top will receive the vessel sink and faucet. Pretty simple and straightforward looking but this is the kind of design I like the most.

The sink is ordered and I will wait to receive it before starting any more detailed plan so to check for correct sizing. 

Project delivered

Finally, it is done. Last weekend my TV stand project was delivered and made my sister in law happy.
Here are some pictures of the final result.

Front view.

Top side finish.

In place.

This has been a very nice and interesting project that allowed me to learn many things.

In summary the lessons learned are the following:

• Full size drawing - Having a full size plan of what needs to be done provide a way to quickly check measurement. Also direct measurement is less prone to calculation error.
• Avoiding blushing on pine wood - I found my recipe of Shellac mix and application and it is very effective. This is the first time I was able to easily get no blushing when applying the stain.
• Staining - Very easy to stain using a piece cotton rag instead of a brush. This has the benefit to leave no mark.
• Finish - Here again I found my recipe for wiping varnish and was able to get a pretty decent finish. Add a coat or two of beeswax and some buffing to get the shine I wanted. Also start finishing early in a project and before assembling parts when possible. It is far easier to finish a piece set flat on a table than after having assembled it. 
• Router plane - This is a handy tool that makes very easy to get precisely sized tenons.
• Mortise by hand - Cutting mortises by hand is easier than I originally thought when you use a sharp chisel and the right.
• Lamination - Be very careful at wood orientation when laminating boards so the wood fibers are all on the same direction. Doing this ease a lot planing the surface.
• Spokeshave - Are handy tools very nice to use when creating round shapes.
• Sawyer bench - This is so enjoyable to saw long board using a sawyer bench. The position is perfect and makes very easy to saw straight.
• Don't rush - Take the time to think before doing something so to properly plan it ahead. If any issue, step back and think instead of rushing to try to fix it as it will just worsen it.
• Gluing - Always have your gluing sequence repeated before starting, always have all the clamps and tools ready and reachable, always have a bunch of damp cloth nearby.

This is a lot of good experience that I will certainly apply to the next project.

For now I will be tackling some more shelves for my workshop so to properly store my planes that are resting on the workbench and taking too much space.

I see the light

Now I see the light, finally I must say. I am pretty much done with my TV Stand project. It took much effort and more time than expected but more important, it is almost done.

From last post, remained to cut the top board to size using my new sawyer bench.

It was the first time I used my sawyer bench, and in fact the first time I used any sawyer bench so I was a bit nervous as I did not want to miss cut that piece. The cut I needed to saw were diagonal so neither a real crosscut or rip cut, at the end I selected to use my Disston D8 Crosscut saw for this.

First cut.

The cut went pretty well, surprisingly well in fact. The position on the sawyer bench is really nice and makes it far easier to get a straight cut. I was able to cut all along the marked line without any issue.

First cut done along the line...

...and square.

After that first milestone I cut the other side, full of positive energy. The cut went smooth and like the previous one it was pretty easy to cut straight along the line. However this last one was a bit off square.

A bit off square.

There was still no drama though, this is nothing a plane cannot easily fix.

After having cut the right and left side I was done and got the top rough cut.

The top board rough form cut.

Next I needed to round the angles. I started to cut most of the waste using a back saw...

Most of the waste is cut with a back saw.

...then used a chisel to roughly make the rounded part.

The remaining is chiseled out.

This gave me the rough top board shape.

Rough top board shape.

I then used a spokeshave and a block plane to cleanup the round section and finally lightly sand it to get the final shape.

Final top board shape.

After so much effort, this is finally the time I can do a dry fit and see how this will look at the end.

Front view...

...rear view...

...and from below.

I initially wanted to make a beveled edge raising from below the top board. I am wondering if I should still do that. I am not sure anymore that this beveled edge would look good and may just stick with a chamfer all around the top board.

Just a little extra effort to plane the top board perfectly flat and to apply the finish and I will be done and ready to deliver this to its final owner.

Sawyer bench

I need to cut the top board to be able to finish my TV stand project and as written in my last post, I wanted to make a sawyer bench to be more comfortable when sawing. So I put the TV stand on hold for few days so to build my sawyer bench.

After some research on this subject and after seeing some variations about it, I based mine on the one from Tom Fidgen. You can see some example of his design (well not sure if this is his design but the design he documented at least) here.

I however adapted the dimensions described in his book to the wood I already have in my shop as the goal here is to use what I already have that is to say mostly some offcut from other project(s).

In summary mine will be 19^1/2 inches high, 36 inches long and around 15^1/2 inches wide.
Legs are 1^1/2x2^1/2 , the two top boards are 1^1/2x7^1/2, the stretchers are 3/4x3^1/2, same for the aprons, and finally the cleat are 1x1 scraps.

The reason for these dimensions is to maximize wood usage and minimize waste. This said lets jump into the real work!

Step 1: Cut all parts to length.

This is an easy one. I used the my Stanley miter box to be sure to cut square without headache but this can be done directly with a back saw.

A bunch of parts cut to length.

Step 2: Give it some nice legs

Basically two things need to be done on each leg. First cut the notch on the end of the leg where it will be attached to the top board, second cut the notch on the leg for the lap join with the horizontal stretcher.
I used the top board to mark the notch size on the leg top end and the stretcher to mark the size of the bottom notch, 3 inches from the leg bottom end.

For the two straight legs, the top notch is easy, just cut on one side with a rip saw and the other side with a crosscut, clean the cut with a chisel or better with a shoulder plane and you are done.

For the slanted legs I started to cut each end to the correct angle, then marked the top board thickness and finally the cut. Depth of cut should be half of the leg but this does not really matter provided the leg is used to mark the top board afterward.

Slanted legs top cut.

For the notch for the bottom stretcher, it is even easier. Cut each side with the crosscut saw, then saw parallel cuts in the waste and chop it with a chisel.

Multiple cuts on the waste...

...and chop chop chop.

Finally I used a shoulder plane to clean the cut shoulders and bottom carefully checking the depth and width of the cut.

Few pass with the shoulder plane and we are done.

Step 3: Top boards joinery

The two top boards need to be notched the same way the legs lap joins were cut. I used the legs to mark the cut depth and the stretchers to mark the cut width. It does not really matter where the cut are located (meaning no need to exactly measure from ends) provided that they are the same on the two boards and matching legs and stretchers.

Step 4: Dry fit stretchers and legs assembly

After having cleaned the joins it is time to test the legs and stretchers assembly. It should give a snug fit with no gap.

Legs and stretcher assembly dry fit...

...no gap

Then dry fit the assembly with each top boards.

Top board and legs assembly dry fit.

The two assemblies side by side.

Step 5: Aprons and cleats.

The last parts to be made are the two aprons and cleats. I first cut one apron end to the same angle as the slanted legs, then positioned it between the two legs on the side by side dry fit and marked the other end with a  pencil. I added 2 inches to the marked line for the middle space (but this can be any width) and cut the other end square.
The same thing needs to be done to the cleats, minus the legs depth.
Finally I glued the cleats on the aprons, done.

Apron and cleat assemblies.

Step 6: Bird mouth, round and bevels.

Now that all parts are done, the last thing to do before final assembly is to finish the pieces. I cut the bird mouth on the top boards, rounded corners and beveled all edges.

Mouth bird and rounded corners.

Step 7: Final assembly

The final assembly is pretty straightforward. First glue legs and stretchers.

Legs and stretcher glued.

When dry, assemble with each top board.

Legs and top board glued.

Reinforce all joins with dowels.
I used 3/8" dowels for legs and stretcher joins...

Legs and stretcher join reinforced with 3/8" dowels.

...and 5/16" dowels for top board joins.

Top board join reinforced with 5/16" dowels.

Lastly I affixed the aprons and cleats with screws.

Step 8: Step back and enjoy.

Now that my long awaited sawyer bench is done I can enjoy looking at it.

Bird mouth...

Butt view.

I really enjoyed building this bench, first because I wanted one for quite some time and also because it was really a joy to work on it.

I like it very much!

I will make a fence, drill holes for holdfast and apply some finish later as I first need to use it to finalize my TV stand.