Here’s a quick shot of the No. 516 side table after glue up but before sanding. (The quality of the photo is abysmal; I’m trying to get some time to do a proper job photographing our products.)

Despite the poor quality, I wanted you to see how the grain flows in the legs.

In a prior post, I talked about the problem I ran into when cutting the tapers on these legs. I came up with a solution that worked beautifully. You can see in this photo how both the front and rear faces of the legs have matching grain.

While I was at it, I also modified the rail to square off the ends and I cut a rabbet in the top of the legs so that the rail was positioned more towards the front face of the legs. Now everything is where I want it, and I’m happy with the piece.

Just an FYI: For some reason, the photo minimizes the taper of the legs. It’s actually tapered a little more top-to-bottom than the photo is letting on.

Your Correspondent: thinking that a photography backdrop with accessories would make a wonderful birthday present.

Asa Christiana, an editor at Fine Woodworking magazine, recently interviewed Tommy about the new show produced by WGBH in Boston: Rough Cut–Woodworking with Tommy Mac. I’m getting excited.

I think Tommy’s doing it right; staying in his own backyard for the first season to spend some time with some of the best woodworkers in the country who live in the Northeast, then moving out in the second season (he mentions a possible trip to California to explore Greene & Greene furniture).

While the show highlights period furniture, the projects they’ll do in the shop concentrate on just a few elements of high end furniture that anyone can master with a little practice.

Haven’t checked to see WUNC-TV will be carrying it in October. What a disappointment if they don’t!

Recently had an order for some No. 516 side tables and, while building them, I took the opportunity to make some modifications to the basic design. The changes really make the table stronger.

I wanted to move the rail towards the front a little so I cut a rabbet into the top of the leg where it meets the rail. The rabbet gives the joint a mechanical advantage the butt joint didn’t have. And moving the rail out (to seat it in the rabbet) is more pleasing to my eye. I’m very happy with it. (I’ll post some pics soon.)

I also faced a challenge in making the tapered legs of the 516 table. Since the legs are laminated, I had to cut an angle into the back face of the glued-up leg to get the taper but when I did that, the nice, even grain that the face of the leg displayed was transformed into something less desirable — the grain changed direction, lost some color and picked up some contrast. Like going from a tuxedo trousers to striped pajama bottoms. Very disconcerting.

You can see the differences in the photo above. The piece to the right used to be the face of the piece on the left before I cut the taper. Notice the grain in the left piece now moves up and to the right, is a little washed out and has more contrast in the growth rings. Does everything I didn’t want it to do.

Well, the solution is interesting, but I’ll spare you the details for now. It’s not a time consuming workaround but it gets nice grain on both faces of the leg and really makes the table look good from any angle. That was the objective.

The point is that like so many things in life, surprises often lead to better things than we first imagined. So it was with this table. I had to modify the leg/rail joinery to get the rails where I wanted them and in the process, I actually strengthened the piece. I had to modify the lamination process to deal with the grain issue and got a better leg in the bargain. Nice.

Your correspondent: Sometimes finds what he’s not looking for.

Worked on some sketches of a new outdoor plant stand yesterday and thought I’d preview what I’ve got so far.

I wanted to create a multi-level stand that allowed the plants (or any other objects) to be placed in different horizontal and vertical planes. The important thing here is to get the proportions right. The design looks good to my eye but I’ll need to build the piece to see if the three-dimensional prototype does the design justice. If it does, this will be the No. 7 Bonsai Plant and Garden Stand (or something like that).

I’m using the same three-plane joint in this piece that I use in the No. 1 and No. 3 bonsai stands and the No. 917 chair and legrest. It’s simple and strong.

And, as usual, I’m using cypress. I’m varying the thickness of the rails, the legs and the decks. (I may need to widen the upper decks a tad.) The nice thing about this kind of design is that it’ll be easy to tweak since there are no curves to modify.

So I’m anxious to build it. It could easily do double duty as a side table for a set of No. 917 chairs. A cup of coffee, glasses, the newspaper, a book — all have places here. It then becomes a cutting- edge/fashion-forward side table AND a plant stand with a place for everything.

Or I could split it into two units. One unit would be a side table/stand that’s comprised of the two upper decks and the lower deck directly in front of the two upper decks. Then the other unit becomes a kind of shohin bonsai stand.

Or, perhaps more likely, I’ll make all three versions available.

We’ll see how the prototypes look.

Your correspondent: is having too much fun.

The promise of sub-90 degree temperatures this weekend was really encouraging. The humidity this summer has been thick, like being smothered in a hot, wet blanket. My shop fans just seem to move around the heaviness without providing any relief. Building an adirondack chair or a bonsai plant stand in an oven isn’t the epitome of fun, so any little break in temps is a welcome break.

So Saturday morning I gave the shop a quick sweep, a light vacuuming, put all the tools back where they belong (tools like to migrate), then waxed the machines and started laying out a new order.

While building this order, I used a device called the Wixey digital angle gauge; it’s new to the shop, and it’s a keeper. Its sole function in life is to measure angles accurately (that is, to within .1 degrees).

For example, if I want to cut a 25° angle, I place the device on the tablesaw top and zero it out (so it reads 0.0 degrees), then attach it to the tablesaw blade (the Wixey is magnetized) and move the blade to 25°, watching the digital readout to get the precise angle. No more trial-and-error test cuts to sneak up on the proper angle. I just dial it in and cut it.

Now I can cut 45° miters and be confident I’ll get a true 90 degrees when I make the joint. A nice, tight, accurate joint really makes me happy.

If you’re a woodworker, you owe it to yourself to put one of these little guys on your birthday or Christmas gift list.

Your Correspondent: A little concerned that I think about Wixey gauges when I’m tired.

About 45 years ago, Wharton Esherick famously told Sam Maloof (in a cleaned-up version):

This thing you call handcraft. I say, “Stop that thing.” I use any damn machinery I can get a hold of . . . Handcrafted has nothing to do with it. I’ll use my teeth if I have to. There’s a little of the hand, but the main thing is the heart and the head. Handcrafted? I say “Applesauce! Stop it!”

The Furniture of Sam Maloof, p. 127

I was reminded of Esherick’s observation when I saw this link at The Wood Whisperer. It’s a tour of a guy’s shop, filled to overflowing with all kinds of tools and machinery:

Shop tours are interesting things for woodworkers. (In fact, my son and I had the pleasure of touring another woodworker’s shop just last night. Thanks Tim and Herschel!)

But the thing about this shop that smacked me up side the head is that this guy will never have to use his teeth to get anything done! He’s got every base covered. Maybe there’s still room for the heart and the head but the hand has every aid it’ll ever need.

Your Correspondent who’s thinking all he really needs is some air conditioning.

And now for something completely different!

I ran across a picture of the Gerrit Rietveld Red-Blue chair last year, and I was mesmerized. I love this chair. Rietveld was a Dutch architect/furniture designer in the early 20th century. (A photo of the chair, below, shows the distinctive paint scheme Rietveld used on his chair.)

So I drafted some plans for an outdoor chair based on Reitveld’s design and built several prototypes, settling on the one you see to the left.

Something this rectilinear is not for everybody; maybe it’s even an acquired taste, I don’t know. But there’s no denying it’s distinctive.

I made a few necessary modifications to Rietveld’s design so that it can live outside: I divided both the seat and the back into four slats to accommodate wood movement. I added a rail to the lower part of the rear frame to strengthen it, and I moved the arms out a little. I also laminated the parts that make up the frame (more about that below).

I’m calling it the 917 series because Rietveld designed and built the Red-Blue chair about 1917 (and my anniversary is September 17th, a great day!). I’ve also designed a legrest, several side tables and some plant stands using the basic rectilinear pattern of Rietveld’s chair. See the No. 1 and No 3 bonsai stands for examples.

One of the reasons I built the chair was to find out just how sturdy and comfortable it is. You might be wondering the same thing.

Rietveld used dowels to join the parts of his chair; I use stainless steel screws and Titebond III waterproof glue. I wanted to get as close as possible to his original in terms of the slender dimensions of the parts so I ended up laminating the parts that make up the frame (i.e. glueing two strips of wood together to make a single part) which actually strengthens the piece. There’s less chance that a part will twist or warp because the glue joint actually resists movement. In fact, the glue joint itself is stronger than the wood.

The chair also features what I call the three-plane joint for lack of a better phrase. It’s just the intersection of three parts in three different planes that are connected with glue and screws. A simple, strong joint.

As for comfort: I was surprised to find that the chair wasn’t simply an exercise in geometry and minimalism. It’s comfortable too. I actually use the prototype in our den as a reading chair. It’s good without cushions for about 30 minutes. With cushions, it’s even better (not real sure here because I rarely sit an hour in anything). I built the legrest because I’m over 6′ tall and I can stretch out my legs nicely with the legrest in place.

The chair will probably work best on a hard surface like concrete, stone or a wood deck. The thin legs would sink into soft turf. (No problem on sun-baked red clay like we have around here.) Give it a home in a sheltered area and get creative with outrageous paint schemes. The chair is the perfect canvas for that sort of thing.

Details about size and price for the chair and legrest are available here.

Cypress often displays beautiful patterns of grain and different shades of brown, reds and even sometimes purple; here’s a recent example.

The board that yielded these slats was air-dried and had a few small knots in it, which adds a bit of character to the piece. I like it. (See this post for a pic of the same wood in the rough.) This will be the top for a No. 124 35″ Bench.

The other parts of the frame and the table legs that need to be glued-up appear at the top of the picture.

Sorry for the low res. This is an iPhone photo shot in less-than-optimal light but I hope it suggests how sweet cypress can look!

Using the same design elements as the No. 1 Bonsai Stand, this multi-tiered outdoor bonsai stand provides more surface area for the display of your favorite plants (or anything else). The decks are made of cypress slats to handle wood movement in wet conditions.

The stand is made of cypress, stainless steel screws and water-proof glue. It’s about 1 foot wide, 2 feet high, and 3 feet long. (Some assembly is required.)

Go to this page for more details and ordering information.

The No. 1 Bonsai Stand is the simplest of a new series of designs that showcase bonsai and other beautiful plants. (Other bonsai stands in this series will be appearing before the end of the month.)

The No. 1 stand is made of select cypress (no knots) with special attention paid to the choice of the top boards to insure a pleasing grain pattern. It’s a simple, sturdy piece for display of your favorite plants.

Go to this page for more details and ordering info.

Your Correspondent: Sometimes “simple” is the destination of the complex.