Craig’s Crafts

I’m embarrassed to admit that I haven’t done a thing in my shop since November, unless you count the “Christmas tree” I made.

We don’t have any kids in the house to nag us to death about getting a tree and our dogs aren’t any help in motivating us to get one. They always seem surprised that they have new toys on Christmas morning, even after the big decoration session of the night before.

In any event, it was Christmas Eve, we had no tree, so I took a couple or three 1×2s, split them and made a triangular outline of a tree. Adding a few (6) strings of red lights from Walgreens, and viola, a tree. Sort of.

The camera flash exaggerates the light color of the frame, but in normal room light it was masked by the red lights. Next year my wife wants me to re-do it, more in the shape of a tree than a triangle.  I’m  not looking forward to un- and re-winding 600 lights.

After producing a prototype for anything I’m working on, I debrief myself on the problems I encountered. I take the notes I’ve made, usually right on a copy of the plans and/or cutlist, and give them a little organization. I put circled numbers on those notes to indicate the sequence I’ve made them. I use the notes to make a list and then add observations on how I solved a problem. Sometime the solutions aren’t found until afterward or until the next version is made. This addendum is kept and a copy is filed with the plans until needed again.
I’ve done a comparison of those notes, and here is a list of steps I keep in mind when starting a new project:

1. Make notes. Anything that isn’t correct, took too long, needs a special accessory or jig, anything you think will help if you want to make this project again. Don’t be afraid to write on the plans/cutlist. (You can make a copy and write on that if you want.)
2. Acclimate your stock to your shop environment. I’ve rushed into milling newly purchased wood, and resumed work a week or so later only to find the stock had changed size on me.
3. Refer to drawings and cutlists during planing and construction. Mistakes happen, and not all measurements in a plan are necessarily correct. Think about the way the parts will fit before you cut, and check back at the creator’s website if you can.
4. Organize similarly dimensioned stock for milling. I try to cut every piece of the same dimension with the same setup. If it’s right, they’re perfect. If it’s wrong, at least they’re all the same size. Maybe you can just adjust the other dimensions and not have to start over.
5. Cut everything you can while it’s still square or disassembled. It’s so much easier to clamp, route or taper at that point.
6. Dry fit as you go along. This will help you decide on the order of assembly, confirm the parts will fit later and help with glue-up. Sometimes just comparing a part you’re about to cut to the partially assembled project can prevent a costly error.
7. Assemble as sub-assemblies. You’ll need fewer clamps and won’t be racing against the glue. It takes a little more time, but the attention to detail often pays off with higher quality construction.
8. Finally, save the cutoffs. They come in handy for testing stains and finishes, or at least as clamp pads. Or sizing dadoes. Or parts for a jog. Or backup for drilling. Or…

Alright, I admit it. I save every scrap.

Since I’m not sure what type of wood I’m going to make the “real” Utensil Holder, I just gather a bunch of scrap pieces and using various power tools I make a set of parts for each prototype. I haven’t made a formal set of plans yet, even though I took Mechanical Drawing in high school. I just sketch out an outline of a part, mark it with dimensions (and how many I’ll need of it), and start cutting.

I’m about to drop this method, as it always seems to bite me by having the end grain of some parts show when they shouldn’t and changing a dimension for one part without following through on others that mate with it. Accounting for thickness of some parts is often forgotten until I begin to assemble the project. I have much more respect for whoever draws up plans in the woodworking magazines.

So, here are some pictures of my latest try. I’m still using a fence-like method of construction here, but the number and size of the rails may become a problem. This has 19 pieces, and that’s a awful lot for such a small project. I’m going to see if I can simplify the design.

I showed this one to my wife and it’s now being used in our kitchen. After just a few days of “road-testing”, she suggested making the bottom rails higher, it doesn’t need to be quite so tall, and make the openings between the rails smaller. I’ll see if I can do this in the next version.

Here is the second version.

At this point I’ve abandoned the trapezoidal shape and gone back to vertical corner supports with rails to prevent the various utensils from poking out as you insert them. As you can see from the front view I’m still having a few problems when it comes to cutting parts to exact lengths. And I can’t seem to remember that end grain is mostly ugly and should be hidden.

The good points in this design are:

1. The top and bottom dividers that keep the utensils in two groupings
2. The dividers also prevent shorter items from sliding down too far and becoming hard to retrieve
3. The bottom rail holds everything in
4. Open railing gives a good view of the contents

Once again, parts alignment is a problem. When I get ready to make a more complete prototype, I’ll make a jig to hold the parts.

Here are two more pictures showing overall dimensions (ruler is still upside-down!). One last problem I discovered is that the order of assembly is important. Pin-nail the rails on all the way around, and I can’t get to the bottom divider, and I don’t want to just have glue and a press fit holding it in.