Sihistin - Woodworking

A new balcony and canopy for the main entrance

Pekka Huhta — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:26:55 +0000

We moved in to an old timber framed house six years ago and I have been renovating it since. This year I got the last bits finished on the outside, now there is still only some interior work left.

Last things to be done were the front door and the balcony. The "before" image has been taken on the first winter after moving in and the "after" one just a few weeks ago.

The house has been built from recycled timber in 1919. It has been very common over here to move and modify timber houses: the house is just taken off from one end of a bigger building, all the floor boards, windows and doors have been taken from the old building.

I have old pine beams that have been roof beams of the original building. there are several of them in the house, and a sauna building was also made from the same beams. When the sauna was demolished, I saved the beams for repairs in the house. So, most of the parts of the balcony were also cut from the old, 7x7" beams.

I made mock-ups for the ends of the beams and handrail posts. The beams were so heavy that it was much easier to fit the ends of the beams to the wall with the mock-up. I climbed up the wall with the mock-up, made all modifications needed to fit the beams to the holes on the wall and then copied the modifications to the actual beams.

I made bevels to both the beams and the supporting diagonals (rafters, maybe?) both for looks and also for letting the rainwater pour out to the sides of the diagonals, instead of directing the water to the joint between diagonal and the wall

After the beams were completed, I used a rope and tackle to lift them to place one by one just to check the fit. At the same time I tried to search the best angle for the diagonals (the joints were not yet cut at this stage).

The diagonals on both the balcony and the canopy were fitted with a mortice and tenon. First the tenons:

...and then the mortices. I know most people do it the other way round, but I usually make the tenon first and just use it to mark the mortice. The bigger mortices were cut with a pigsticker, the smaller ones for the canopy with japanese chisels.

While discussing the mortices, I'm jumping to the handrails of the balcony: there were about 40 mortices in the handrails. The handrails were joined to the wall wih pocket hole screws. I don't have a jig for those, but it's just as easy with a block of wood clamped to the handrail.

Unfortunately I don't have any pics of the assembly. I had all the parts painted before assembly, so I only have to touch up the paintwork afterwards.

The handrails have a drawbored m&t joint to the corner posts. Also the horizontal battens are morticed to the corner posts.

The beams extend about 15 cm through the wall. They are secured with hot dip galvanized angle irons.

One of the most important things is a bitumen felt collar that's nailed both to the wall and the beams. This prevents any water seeping in the wall.

The diagonals were just bolted to the wall. As the house is timber framed, two 12x180 mm wood screws per diagonal is more than enough to hold them together.

As you can see on the pics, I still have to touch up the paint on the balcony next year. I use only traditional paints on all my work, so these were primed with a primer mixed from zinc oxide and boiled linseed oil, followed by two coats of traditional linseed oil paint. I do mix the primer myself, but mainly use ready-made paints for surface paintings. I only buy white paint and mix the colours myself.

The canopy was made as a pair for the balcony, I tried to keep the same visual idea on that as well. In addition to the mortice and tenon, there was also a dovetail joint on the upper corner and a lap joint on the upper end of the diagonal.

The finished frames were glued together:

The canopy was so small that I did not want a separate gutter for it. I made an integrated gutter instead. I don't have a clue of the english therminology for that kind of a gutter, but those are pretty common in Finnish houses. The roofing is just red bitumen felt

Now all the exterior work is done for this year - they promised the first snowfall for today

I'm also trying to use these as a good excuse for skipping this year's competition. I had good intentions to get that finished during the summer, but these things always take much more time than expected...

Pekka

Hand planed moldings for my bathroom

Pekka Huhta — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:32:53 +0000

I wanted hand planed moldings to my bathroom – actually they were a big part of the design from the start. I actually started the whole project by planing the first moldings, the story can be found at http://www.sihistin.fi/en/woodwork/moldings.html

Starting from the material: I use pine, as slowly grown as I can find, free of knots and cross-grain. Here is an example of what I mean:

Also the grain orientation is very important. The main direction of the moled surface should be perpendicular to the growth rings. Otherwise some of the growth rings tend to “peel” off the surface when planing. On first picture the correct grain orientation is shown at left, wrong at right. On second picture the same moldings from the front: the right way on top, wrong way on bottom. The difference is even bigger when looking the surface closer.

The first molding is really really simple: I just needed a shot molding to copy the idea of paneling used around the window. I could have modified it from the paneling itself, but this was actually faster than filling the groove on the panel etc.

I started by planing a groove to the middle of the profile just for a reference mark. The profile is OK when the reference mark just disappears. I use a #45 with a V-shaped cutter for the reference marks.

Next I just rounded the corners with an appropriate hollow. Last picture is from the finished paneling: it seems like the paneling continues around the corner. I had to start the paneling from the corner and continue to both directions from that on to get the effect. The same molding is also used on the bottom of the paneling on the ceiling.

The molding between shower glass and wall paneling is pretty much the same, except for the double beads on the sides and 45° cuts on backside for fitting to the corner. I used a lot of beads on the bathroom as they seemed to fit nicely to the beaded T&G paneling on the walls.

The architrave was a bit different than usual. Instead of just using the same molding to frame the whole door, the top of the architrave continues around the room on top of the paneling. I first made a few sketches with 3 and 4 beads and decided to go for 3.

As you can see from the pictures, I did not have proper timber for this and the end result left a lot to be desired. I had tu use a bucketful of putty to get the architraves decent before painting.

First I planed the triple beads with a #45 and bevelled the edges with a #98.

Then I made a shallow bevel from the beaded part towards the edges and rounded the edges with a hollow. On the end result you see that the architrave is almost flush with the paneling.

I planed the skirting boards already when making the big moldings, but the ends of the skirting boards were a slight problem as the architrave was almost flush with the paneling. So I ended up rounding the ends of skirting boards. This was done with a plane on the lower part and several in-cannel gouges and small files on the molding.

Rounding the end of a molding isn’t that common, the big molding on top of the paneling was done in a more traditional way.

First I glued a piece of wood to the panel rabbet to be able to cut the molding profile to the end of the molding. On the same picture there is the first try of cutting the profile.

Next I drew the profile to the end of the molding and used a coping saw to get rid of most of the excess wood. And finally finished the profile with small files.

The mitres on the corner were a bit challenging, but ended up well. I just carved the profile to the side of second piece and that was it.

The front of the windowsill was done in a similar way. There is also a small molding between the paneling and windowsill to prevent water entering behind the panel and the end of it was carved as well.

All in all, it’s fairly simple. Of course you must have the proper tools, but you can do a lot with a few hollows and rounds, a couple of beads and a #45.

Finally, a few pictures of moldings and tools used to create them.

The ”teak floor” was also framed and I used a jack plane –sized molding plane to thin down the frames.

All in all, it was fun and definitely worth it, although building the bathroom took about a year. I prefer to think about it as building a room-sized piece of furniture

Pekka

Hand-planed moldings

Pekka Huhta — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:50:59 +0000

My house is built 1919 from recycled components, apparently taken from a bigger house somewhere. For my bathroom project I decided to add a few new profiles in addition to the vast amount of old recycled moldings I have scattered all over the house. Just for the fun of doing it, and perhaps to prove my dear wife that there really is a point in collecting all of those planes.

It is pretty difficult to get good enough timber anywhere, but I had some old roof beams available (you’ll see some more on the background). Cutting the planks with a chainsaw only proved to be too slow, so I run two cuts with a circular saw on both sides of the log and did the rest with the chainsaw. Apparently the chainsaw mills are better for green wood; this stuff was too hard for a 2000W Makita.

First I made one practice piece but wasn’t happy with it. It also involved repairing a molding plane. Time and effort was lost, but it’s better to try on a small scale. Practicing is also good for finding out the proper tools: it took 14 individual planes for the first try and only 7 for the final product.

The second try was better.

A plow plane was used to reach the profile...

...and a wooden scrub to remove the excess.

A few passes more and we are close.

The curve comes with an appropriate round. I noted that although the form was OK for this plane, it was easy to smooth planing marks out with one number smaller round.

Instead of the original triple bead or reed I ended up with a double bead planed with a #45 combi.

The bottom of the molding was finished with a very small round and chamfered.

The finished test piece and the profile copied to the end of the first ”production model”. I cut a sample for the final molding in the middle of the test piece. About a foot from the end of the molding is always a bit different no matter how hard you try.

The first actual molding. I’m glad that I have two woodburning stoves in the house, I would be in trouble with all those shavings.

For mass production I used a circular saw, thought that I had enough practice with the plow already.

As my workshop is only about 8 feet across, I had to move outside for the longer pieces. I screwed a 6” beam to my build stands and screwed the moldings to that. As the ends of the moldings are more or less useless anyway, a few screw holes don’t matter and it’s much faster than fussing with clamps.

The round went up very nicely and the final molding was just as pretty as the previous, although I had my doubts that it might look a bit different because of the change from plow plane to circular saw.

There are only a few tricks in it. First is always stock selection. If there are any knots on the stock it can be tolerated, but avoid any knots near the ends. The ends are slightly different anyway, but knots make it ultimately worse.

Another thing is to get the grain direction as tangential to the molding as possible. If the growth rings are parallel to the surface, you’ll get tearouts much more easily.

And then there is the dance. You’ll have to get your steps right in order to get the molding constant: you start from the farthest end of the molding. The force for planing comes from your feet as always, but you’ll have to take a small step back after each stroke. You can see the result from the picture below: there is a shaving sticking out on very uniform steps (except one that was cut off. On your way back to the farthest end you can take longer, thinner cuts to smooth the marks. It really feels like a dance after you’ve done it a couple of hours.

While I was at it, I did the moldings between the wall and the floor (another word that I don’t remember). Only an easy job with a #55.

Here they are: the pile looks ridiculously small

The whole process was strangely satisfying. Knowing that there aren’t that many people who would do the same, getting an idea of how it was done. And the rhythm of planing was almost hypnotizing, I bet there was some Zen involved in it.

Pekka

A self-made wooden lathe

Pekka Huhta — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:00:00 +0000

I had a problem: I needed a lathe for a couple of chisel handles but had no intention of buying one. My workshop is about 2,3 x 2,4 m big and already pretty full and I did not want to waste money for something that could be easily built anyway.

I have used my hand drill for all sorts of small turning tasks, modifying screw heads, polishing anything that could be gripped in the chuck and rotated etc. So the thought of using a hand drill as the motor for the drill was quite obvious.

Unfortunately I did not take photos during the building stage, but here is the finished lathe:

It’s made of an old, badly tarnished table top (which turned out to be masur birch after I planed it down a bit) and workshop scraps. The headstock, tailstock and toolrest base birch, and the rails (?) are ash. Tool rest itself was carved of a scrap of Iroko which had enough sapwood to prevent me from using it on my boat projects.

The first thing was to assemble the rails, headstock and end blocks on the other end together. The headstock bearing was a brass bushing with a flange in it. I have no idea what it has originally been for; it was just a discovery from my “box of surprises”. It had 10 mm hole through it. The spindle is just a knot bore re-ground so that it doesn’t drill into the workpiece.

Tailstock bearing was drilled by inserting a 10 mm drill bit through the headstock. This way I got them aligned properly. I did the same thing “backwards” when I aligned the center of the drill holder on the left end.

After drilling the hole for tailstock bearing I inserted a brass pipe over there, drilled and tapped a piece of 10 mm steel plate for the tailstock screw and added a locking screw. Here is the catch: there is a ball bearing (just one 10 mm ball) between the tailstock screw and (wassat sharp part that goes to the end of the workpiece). This way it rotates very lightly and the tailstock screw doesn’t unscrew easily.

After assembly I took everything apart again for finishing. First I used a quite thin mixture of turpentine, linseed oil and a tad of tar. Using pine tar for everything is a bad habit of mine, coming from fooling too much around in wooden boats. The final coatings were just shellac.

All the other parts were just leftovers from my endless boxes, jugs and tin cans full of screws. Total cost of building was zero, although it took about a week or two to make in the evenings.

Here are the first leather capped chisel handles turned with the new lathe.

I hope you enjoyed the story, at least I had fun building that thing

Pekka

Making an axe handle

Pekka Huhta — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:00:00 +0000

I had two axes in need of a handle and a small birch trunk to begin with. At least over here the rule goes: back of the handle towards the bark. Never towards the center, and never getting the center on the finished handle. You also should always find some sort of natural croock in the wood. As you can see my trunk had a shallow s-curve in it, suitable for two handles.

As a small note, the trunk shown is almost below the minimum size, you should start with 25+ cm trunk, but these were small workshop axes not intended for heavy hitting.

The trunk was already chopped flat with an axe, the rest of it came with bow saws. Ohyes, they look crude, but one of these days I'll do something about it. Talk about "user tools", these are users if anything.

By the way, never take the blank from the end of the trunk as there are always cracks over there. Much more than in a plank, as a trunk is dried with the bark on and the ends crack much further.

Of course you could make the handle from a plank as well, but it's just not the right way.

Fitting the end is just the same as on a hammer. I smeared some soot to the "eye" of the axe to be able to see the high spots on the handle.

As you saw, fitting of the handle was done with only preliminary form of the handle showing. Getting the axe head on just right is delicate business and if you get it a bit wrong you can still adjust the angle or twist a wee bit if the handle isn't completely finished at this stage.

Unlike almost all Finnish axes, this one was fitted with two hooks keeping the head on place. They were fitted just as fitting the axe head, with colour. Only that I used red felt-tip pen to colour the hooks, soot would have dirtied the whole handle.

Wedging is just the same as on a hammer head, here was just the addition of rivetting the hooks on.

On the first picture there is the old handle and un-finished new one. As you notice, I am a bit shy on making the final cuts on the blank, so there is at least 3-5 mm extra on every side. On the second, finished picture you can see the handle finished and tarred.

An axe is practically the second most important tool on Finnish woodworking tradition, straight after the puukko (knife). A good axe is kept just as sharp as a knife. On the countryside a man would have built his own house from logs till the 1930's with just an axe and a saw. Even the delicate joints on corners were mainly done with just an axe. No framing chisels, no slicks, no nothing. We are pretty primitive people anyway.

To return to the issue of "which side up" or what grain direction to use, there are some rules on using the wood that are almost genetic around here. The skis are always done with the bottom of the ski towards the bark and you ski with top end of the tree back. When putting a plank to the facade of a house it's always "inside out and topside down", heartwood out and top down. Making an axe handle with the back of the handle from the center of the tree would really feel like walking with your shoes on wrong feet. I can not thell why it's that way but I just can't twist my mind enough to do it the wrong way.

This is just my intuitive guess why: Sapwood is more elastic than heartwood. Back side of the handle is pressure side and the more elastic sapwood will compress a bit more when hitting than heartwood would if it was on the backside. This gives a bit of flex to the handle to prevent it "kicking back" when you use the axe for splitting or other heavy hitting. Factory handles do this a lot as the grain orientation is whatever the machine produced.

Also, if you put the sapwood on the tension side (front of the handle) and the rigid heartwood on back youl have too much tension on the sapwood. As wood stands pressure very well but doen't like tension, you'll have a handle that might be prone to splitting on the front side if you do it backwards.

So getting the grain dierction right you'll get both a handle that's "nice to your hands" and not too prone of splitting.

Pekka