Picture of my first woodworking project.

similost

similost

Rockin and Rollin....
Ok.. not my first project, but my first real project. I've built lots of benches and used to frame for a while, but this is the first piece of furniture I've ever made.

It's the same style as the rest of the living room.. I am replacing the frame on a wallmirror with this one..

Finished glueing it up today, now all I got left is hours and hours of sanding and oiling and buffing..

BTW.. like my new frame holder? :D

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Thanks Clyde. It's not perfect, but it passes the 3 foot test.. looks really great from there... I'm sure as I work on more projects I'll learn a lot more and the joint seams will get tighter, but my wife is way beyond happy with it and can't wait for me to get it finished. Just held it up on the wall for her and she was really loving it... better than my new speakers :D
 
That looks beautiful. Nice detail work as I see. I like watching Norm Abrams the New Yankee Workshop. Of course he makes it look easy. BTW what is that under it? Looks like a big horn tweeter.

I have been picking up some vintage cheap receiver amps and redoing the woodwork on them. It really makes them classy.
 
Yep.. I always enjoy watching Norm... Wish I had his shop too. Would have made this a lot easier.. The company I bought the rest of the living room furniture from was my inspiration to make this... Watching them in their show was too cool, and I figured I could do simpler stuff.. so here it is... Besides, I saved a ton of money rather than buying from them for this...

Yeah, that's one of my new horns.. it goes to this..
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=333007
 
Nice looking work, James! Whatcha gonna finish it with?

I'd almost kill for a nice table saw and some space to use it in. But then, a router table, scroll saw, a couple stationary sanders, a drill press, and a planer wouldn't be too bad either. :D
 
Thanks JT... I'm going with Watco Teak oil.. and lots and lots of wet sanding... I'm can't wait to get it done..

Problem I have now is I've got some big as speakers in my garage taking up all my working space...

LOL.. you must of peeked in my garage... The scroll saw was the only thing I didn't use on this project.. and if it wasn't for all the other tools, it would have looked like a 5th grade recess project.. LOL..

I'm so thankful for CL, estates and garage sales.. I've managed to fput a nice hobby shop grade garage together..
 
Thanks pixel.. Once I get it done and hung on the wall, I'll get some better closer pictures.. I know a lot of the "issues" will sand out and I won't be so timid about a close up :D
 
Looking good James! Nothing like making some nice wood projects that will keep the missus happy. I'm sure you will be rewarded for all the hard work and effort you out into this one. :D
 
Great work. I especially like the porportions of the corbels and the varied width between the rails and stiles. Another nice detail is to vary the thickness between the rails and stiles are create another shadow line.
 
Thank you elco... The varied width was kind of created by the size of the lumber I had on hand.. Had to make do with what I had, but the more I looked at it, the more I liked the idea of them being different sizes. I felt it helped break up the "chunkyness"

I'm guessing the corbels are the curved pieces on the sides? If so, I actually traced the ones on our couch and then thinned them down a little bit, and made them a tad longer. Like I said, I was trying to make this look a little more elegant than the typical large and in charge feeling a lot of mission style has. You can't see it here really, but they are about half the thickness of the rest of the frame. The frame itself is a little over 1 5/8" thick.. .. the corbels about 5/8" thick

I did think about making the rails a little thinner thickness wise (that is the horizontal pieces right?) but I figured my first project, especially the first mortise and tennons I was ever cutting, I better keep the math simple so I knew I would get it right.
 
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similost said:
I'm guessing the corbels are the curved pieces on the sides? I did think about making the rails a little thinner thickness wise (that is the horizontal pieces right?) but I figured my first project, especially the first mortise and tennons I was ever cutting, I better keep the math simple so I knew I would get it right.
Click to expand...

Yes and yes. How did you do the M&T's?
 
I did the mortises wih the router, and I had built a crosscut sled, and then made a tennon jig that mounted to that. It wasn't perfect, and a little clunky and made me work for them, but it worked out and made some tight joints.

Then as it always happens, two days later, I'm at an estate sale and stumble on a Delta Tennioning Jig still in the box... go figure..
 
The jig I picked up was pretty heavy.. i was just looking at others on the web, and compared to the ones I am seeing for sale, I'd say I got one of the older heavier ones. Mine doesn't look like the new ones for sale. .

From memory, this looks like what I found..

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Yessir that's the old style. Works like a champ. FWIW I cut the shoulder first with an ATB combo blade. Then I cut the tenons with my rip blade which as flat raker teeth. I get a nice clean shoulder that way that takes a minimum of fitting with a shoulder plane. One trick for producing a lot of tenons of the same width is using the outside blades from a dado set with spacers instead of the chippers. Then you make both cheek cuts at the same time and they are exactly the same width even if the stock is a little off. When your making a run of 14 Arts & Crafts chairs with 30 or 40 M&T joints in each one the time savings adds up.
 
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