Beginner ideas

The New New Project

So about a week ago I finally got moving on a new project - a knife holder. But then things changed. I started thinking about how my son has developed a real interest in the happenings up on the counters and how he likes to move the dining room chairs over so he can see, and grab, things off the counter. I decided that it would be better if the knives continued living in a drawer with a child lock. End of the new project.

So, it was time for a new, new project. And after resawing the stock for the knife holder, I was darn well going to use it. I settled on making a candle shelf. Using the dimensions of the stock, I designed a set of hanging shelves - well really a shelf/rack with two drawers underneath. Heres a shot of my plans:


The first step was to true one edge of the stock. I held it in the face vise and used a jointer to straighten the edge.


Then I marked the final width with my panel gauge riding on the trued edge - flipping it end for end to mark both sides.


There was less than 1/4 inch to remove, so I opted to plane it off rather than rip it with a saw. I started with a scrub plane for fast wood removal, and then finished up with the jointer. As I got close to the layout lines, the thin strips of wood started lifting up. If I was working square to the edge, they would have appeared on both arrises at the same time. As you can see in the photo below, only the near side was showing the curl, which meant I was high on the far side and needed to adjust my angle. This technique works a lot better than continuously bending down to look at the lines.


You can also see that I never really smoothed the resawn face of the stock. For the knife holder, this was unnecessary as the inside faces would not show. For the new project, the inside faces will show in the upper section, and I needed to spend some time smoothing those surfaces.

My design called for a curve on the upper half of each side. To lay out a true curve, I used a thin dowel. With one end clamped to the stock, I could flex the dowel until the curve was the right shape, and then trace it onto the stock.


After cutting the curve with my turning saw, I used a convex sole spokeshave to clean up the curve.


Instead of trying to replicate the same curve with the dowel for the second side, I just traced the first side. Heres the pair:


Next, Ill start to work on the joints: dovetails for the top and bottom, rabbets for the back, and dadoes for the shelf and drawer dividers. After that, Ill make the two small drawers.