Blog Archives

We’ve been teasing our blog readers for a couple weeks now about our new online “Shop
Class on Demand” for SketchUp and I’m happy to announce that it it now up and
running in our store. If you’ve been wanting to learn how to use SketchUp, or tried
it but gave up in frustration, this is an exciting new way to master this design and
planning software.


Part One is now
available for immediate download to your computer. Part Two, advanced techniques
is on its way, as is a CD version of Part One. Head over to the store, click on the
link that says “SHOP CLASS SERIES” and get started. Here’s how it works, and what
you can expect:

Each part of this series is close to two hours of video instruction. I recorded from
my computer screen as I worked through modeling in SketchUp. This is much like one
on one teaching as possible. You can begin watching the video on your computer, then
try these techniques for yourself in SketchUp. The pace of the class is up to you-pause
the playback, try things out, practice what you need to and then move ahead when you’re
ready.

The lessons start with basic drawing commands, navigating in the program and setting
up the software on your computer. By the end of the video, you’ll be making components
and learning how to make accurate, detailed models of your projects. You’ll find it
takes less time to plan a project in SketchUp than with any other method, and you’ll
have accurate information about what to build and how to build it when you head to
the shop.

Here are a few technical details before you give it a try. The videos are in QuickTime
format, so you need to have the QuickTime player installed on your computer. QuickTime
is a free download, and a link and instructions can be found in the store. You’ll
also need to download and install the SketchUp program from Google. SketchUp is also
free, and you can find those links in the store as well.

When you’ve made your purchase, download the video to your computer, and you will
have it available whenever you want to watch it. The quality and resolution of these
videos is very good, so the files to be downloaded are rather large. We’ve split the
lesson up into several files to keep the download time reasonable if you have a high-speed
internet connection. If you’re on dial-up, you may want to wait for the CD version.
If you have any questions or problems with the purchase or your download, technical
help is available.

Click
Here to view a sample of the SketchUp Shop Class video

Click
Here to Purchase the SketchUp Shop Class Download

Click
Here to Reserve a Copy of the SketchUp Shop Class on CD

-Bob Lang

I’ve always felt a bit guilty about our collection
of SketchUp models on Google’s 3D
Warehouse. It is such a great resource for our readers (and us) that it doesn’t
seem possible that it’s free. This resource is available to anyone with a web browser,
we don’t have to pay for it and you don’t have to pay for it. SketchUp has
changed  the way we plan and illustrate our projects here at the magazine. The
easiest projects to make are those you've made before, and the process of making a
3D model is almost the same as building in real life, except for the unloading lumber
trucks and sanding part.

Because we have models anyway, and because many of our readers pitched in to help,
we took the opportunity to use this resource as an exercise in community building,
not a way to make a quick buck. I’m pleased that we’ve been able to turn woodworkers
on to this program.

It also works the other way; folks are starting in SketchUp and becoming woodworkers.
Shortly before the holidays, I received an E-mail from one of them, Steve who works
for the SketchUp team. He was curious about our collection, and wrote about it recently
in the “Official
Google SketchUp Blog”. You can read
his post by clicking here. Because he said nice things about us I won’t feel guilty
any more. And I can let you know that we’re working on some new ways for woodworkers
to learn to use SketchUp.



— Bob Lang

The other day I was finishing up the Stickley
music cabinet that will be featured in the February issue of Popular Woodworking.
One of the final tasks was to peg the through-mortise-and-tenon joints that hold the
case together. Glen Huey was in the shop, getting a good start on the Shaker
Stepback Cupboard. It was nice to have company as I split and formed the pegs.

Good dowels can be hard (if not impossible) to find, so when I need the right size
and the right species, I make my own. It doesn’t take long, and the work is a nice
relief from fussing with other details. I start with a straight-grained piece of scrap
about 3″ long, and split off pieces with a chisel. All it takes is a good rap with
a mallet after I put the chisel in place.

I start by aiming for about 3/8″-square blanks to make 1/4″ dowels. Sometimes the
split will be off course, and the blank is made smaller by laying it down on the bench
and continuing the splitting by placing a wide chisel on the wood and pressing down
or tapping with a mallet. Essentially, this is riving lumber on a small scale. It
doesn’t take long to get the hang of it, and it doesn’t matter if I lose a few in
the process. Split material works much better than sawn for making these short lengths.
The blank is stronger because the grain is continuous throughout the length.

When the blanks are close to the right size, I knock the corners off with the chisel
or by whittling with a knife. I whittle down the end to make it easier to start in
the holes in the dowel plate. The plate is just a 1/4″ thick piece of scrap steel
with a series of holes drilled in it. The holes are in steps of 1/16″ and I didn’t
bother trying to sharpen them. If they get dull I may take a flat file across the
face to create a burr, but this works just fine. If that’s too simple for you, you
can buy a fancy dowel plate or try to harden and hone the thing. To use it, I start
with a large hole and pound the blank through. The first hole or two will knock the
corners off, and the final hole will scrape the entire edge of the dowel.

With a brad-point drill, I drill through the front edge and about 1″ into the tenon.
I put a dab of glue in the hole, and drive the dowel in place. After the glue dries,
I trim it flush with a saw, then pare it down flush with a chisel. A few swipes with
a block plane and it’s finished.


That’s the “how to do it” part. After I had the pegs in place, I took a short break
and when I returned to the shop, Glen asked me about the “why to do it” part. Not
why in the sense of “what does the peg do?” but why in the sense of “why go to that
much trouble to reinforce a joint like that; where is it going to go?”

And I confess that I didn’t have a good answer, except that I was copying an original
detail that does make a statement about building for forever. So I reverted to being
a smart aleck and said, “It’s just in case there’s a disturbance in the earth’s magnetic
field that yanks us out of orbit and sends us toward the sun. On the way to oblivion
it might get hot enough for all the glue to melt and for the wood to shrink enough
to pull out. Other than that, I don’t think you need to do it.”

— Robert W. Lang

My favorite drafting instructor in design school was a histrionic misfit known as
Wild Bill. He didn’t pull any punches and tried his best to prepare us for the real
world. When we came to descriptive
geometry, he let us know that by the end of the quarter at least a third of us
would no longer be design majors; we’d have to switch to photography or fine arts
if we didn’t get it. His favorite dramatic device when he caught someone making a
mistake was to refer to a scene in Repo
Man. “Smoking boots!” he would shout, “you’re nothing but a pair of smoking boots!”

It’s a powerful image, and there have been many times in the years since when what
seemed like a good plan somehow went horribly wrong. One of the differences between
woodworking and science fiction is that there can be a significant time lag between
“Give me the keys” and vaporization of everything except your Red Wings. If you read
the Woodworking magazine weblog,
you’re probably familiar with the saga
of the Chinese stool that has been going on since last spring.

The stool looks simple enough, and in many ways it is; three legs connected by three
stretchers support a round seat. We have an antique example that we dissected with
a dead blow hammer, and the construction isn’t quite as simple as it seems. The center
of the stretcher assembly is the center of the triangle between them and that causes
the stretchers to twist a few degrees where they meet the legs. It’s a fun project
because you can’t rely on any of the usual things you use for reference. Nothing is
square, the only things certain are an imaginary plumb line through the center and
an imaginary circle about 9 inches off the ground.

You can’t hold one part against another to get a length until all the joints are cut.
But you have to know the length to cut the joints. Like the stretcher to leg joint,
I’m a little twisted and I think figuring out how to do stuff like this is fun. I
came up with a plan and made one stool to be sure I had the procedure down. It was
a little sloppier than I wanted it to be, but it went together and it’s a marvelous
piece of engineering work. There needs to be some wiggle room for it all to fit together,
but there’s a point where all the parts interlock into a strong structure.

I started in on the second stool, shooting photos as I went for the upcoming magazine
article. And in the midst of it, I made a fatal error. Instead of transferring a layout
mark from the bottom of the assembled stretchers to the top, I flipped the assembly
over. Three angled through mortises and three compound angled tenons later I tried
to dry fit the stool. Like all great bonehead moves it took a while to figure out
what was wrong. The stretchers fit together nicely. The legs fit into the seat, and
the ends of the stretchers fit the legs. Six of the seven parts would fit, but there
isn’t a hammer big enough in Ohio or China to make the whole thing fit together.

This also happened at the classic time to discover a mistake, Friday afternoon. At
two o’clock I was telling myself I’d have the stool together by 3:30 or 4 and I’d
get home early. At five o’clock I realized something wasn’t right and at quarter to
six I knew what it was and headed for home in disgust. The only solution was to remake
all the stretchers. At least I’d only ruined the smallest parts this time, not the
seat or the legs.

Remaking the stretchers when I got back to work on Tuesday wasn’t anywhere near as
bad as I thought it would be over the weekend. They say that if you learn something
by reading it or hearing it you need to have it repeated six or seven times for it
to sink in, but the things you learn by making a mistake stick with you right away.
In woodworking there is always something new to be learned.

I know that you, the reader never do things like this, but perhaps you have a good
goof up story about a friend, neighbor or coworker. You can share it by leaving a
comment.

–Bob Lang

Our November issue is on it’s way
to subscribers, and will be showing up on newsstands in a couple weeks. If you’re
a SketchUp user, you can get a peek at the projects at the Popular
Woodworking 3D Warehouse collection. These new additions bring the total of free
models online to 158, and Google has added some new features to the 3D Warehouse.

You can now subscribe to our collection via RSS feed. That functions the same way
as our blog feed, so when we add a new model, you will be notified. If you subscribe,
you’ll be the first to know when we add a model, like yesterday’s addition of senior
editor Glen D. Huey’s Shaker
Workbench that was featured on the cover of our December
2007 issue.

Another new feature is that you can get a three-dimensional view of models in the
collection without having to download them. Just click on the 3D block  and you
can orbit around the image with your mouse as well as zoom in and out with the scroll
wheel. With the addition of the Gluebo bench
and Glen’s bench, our collection of free workbench models is even better.


My bench is there too,
and in the 13 months it’s been available online, it has been downloaded over 8,000
times. The shot above is one more feature recently added to the SketchUp 3D Warehouse.
You can search for similarly
shaped models. Google searches the images on 3D Warehouse and I found it interesting
and flattering that in addition to a couple other benches, two armored trucks appeared
in the results.

By the way, I will be teaching a week long class about this time next year on building
my bench, if you’d like to join in let me know.

–Bob Lang

Last week at this time I was in St. Charles, Ill., at the Woodworking
in America Furniture Design and Construction conference. It was a busy time for
me as I was giving presentations on both SketchUp and Arts & Crafts furniture.
Despite the pace, it was one of the best weekends I can remember. It is always fun
for us to meet our readers, and like any other woodworker I enjoyed seeing the people
in person whose work I have long admired. My wife and son came along and both of them
mentioned that every woodworker they saw had a big smile.

During
my presentations I promised to post some links to resources on both topics. I'll start
with some of my favorite Arts & Crafts web sites. At the top of the list is the
online version of Gustav Stickley's The
Craftsman magazine.Thanks to the digital archives at the University of Wisconsin,
the entire 16-year run of The Craftsman is available for free. The magazine
is often described (by those who’ve never read it) as a promotional vehicle for Stickley’s
furniture. It was far beyond that in scope and content, and if you want to understand
what life was like in the early 1900s you can get a good start here. The cover image
is from January
1904. That issue marked the debut of the inlaid furniture
designed by Harvey Ellis.

I tend to get lost in reading The Craftsman, and that may well happen to you,
too. Another great web site is the Stickley Museum
at Craftsman Farms. This was Gustav Stickley’s residence in New Jersey. Lots of
information online and if you want to see it in person, it is close by our next
WIA conference.

If
you're looking to take an Arts & Crafts road trip, the Grove Park Inn is another
must-see. We've just published a new book about it, Grove
Park Inn Arts & Crafts Furniture, by Bruce Johnson. Bruce is my favorite author
on the Arts & Crafts period, and this is the best history available about Roycroft furniture.
He also organizes an annual conference at
the inn. Last but not least, the stuff I’ve written about the period is available
from my web site, craftsmanplans.com.

On
the right is a SketchUp model of a Gustav Stickley music cabinet. In St. Charles we
introduced a lot of woodworkers to this free program, and we couldn’t have done it
without the help of the volunteers who staffed our walk-in clinics. Here at the magazine,
SketchUp has made our lives easier, and it has enabled us to share (for free) more
than 150 projects. Here is a quick list of resources:

• Download SketchUp from Google
• Visit the Popular Woodworking SketchUp
  page
• Find thousands of SketchUp models on 3D
  Warehouse
  
• Our models at the Popular
  Woodworking 3D-Warehouse collection
• More great models at the Sketchucation
  Woodworking collection
• Learn and discuss at the Sketchucation
  Woodworking Forum

Thanks to all of you I met at Woodworking in America. My family and I had a lot of
fun. They played tourist while I worked, but we did manage to sample some great local
cuisine and I’m proud to say that my son ate both an Italian Beef sandwich and a hot
dog with everything at one sitting.

If you missed it, I hope to see you in Valley Forge in October.

— Robert W. Lang

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In early Gustav Stickley pieces, doors with divided lights were joined with mitered
mullions. It’s an intriguing look, but was used only for a few years. My next project
for the magazine has a divided door, and even though I haven’t been able to find an
original example of the piece I’m building with mitered joints, I decided to build
mine with that detail. I like the way it looks, so I took the challenge of figuring
out how it goes together, and how to make the parts.

There is a lot going on in a small space. The interior parts are only 1-1/4″ wide
and there is a rabbet on the back for the glass and glass stops. The openings are
small, but the joints need to be strong to support the weight of the assembled door
and the glass. Merely mitering the pieces and depending on glue didn’t seem practical;
the parts would slide around during assembly, and the photos I’ve seen of original
pieces indicate that the central mullion is continuous from top to bottom. I decided
on mortises and tenons on the outer joints, and half-lap joints in the middle.

It goes together quite nicely in SketchUp,
but I decided to get some practice in before building the cabinet. I enjoy the rhythm
of building, and I can’t get that going if there is a part of the process on the horizon
that I haven’t figured out. In this case I was concerned about the joints in the middle
of the door, where four mitered corners all come together. I figured out a really
clever router jig that would cut the openings except for the rounded corner in the
center, which I would need to remove with a chisel. I’m better at chiseling than sawing
so it seemed like a good approach.

One of the reasons that I’m good at chiseling is that I’m not so good at sawing. I
don’t get enough practice to be able to walk into the shop, pick up a saw and cut
a perfect joint. I need to warm up with some practice cuts first. Because of this,
my inclination is to think of the saw last. I should have thought of it first because
my router jig didn’t quite work. I could have made it work, but that would have involved
several hours of fiddling with it to overcome the small variations between the bit
and bearing and the size of the parts. The jig wasn’t a total failure; it came close
but left either a small flat between the points, or a small opening. I was aiming
for something finer.

So I spent a couple hours working out with the saw instead of refining the jig. I
added to the fence to keep it a little farther away from the corner, and it works
nicely to remove the waste and leave a flat surface, after the saw cuts are
made. To really make this joint look good, I need an X exactly on the center of the
board. The kerf of the saw needs to fall on opposite sides of the line on each side
to leave a nice point in the middle.

I almost have it. I took a few extra steps to locate my cuts and get the saw started,
and with a few more practice joints I’ll have it. As for the router jig, maybe I’ll
submit it under an assumed name as a trick to some other magazine.

— Robert W. Lang

Even if you’re experienced with using a computer, learning a new software program
presents two problems. The first is learning how to get around the program; the second
is learning how to make the program do what you want it to do. We’re excited about
what SketchUp can do to make woodworking easier and better, and I’ve been working
on developing methods to help folks learn it. I’ve come to realize that instead of
starting at the beginning by making simple models, you can dramatically shorten the
learning curve by starting at the end.

The real value of SketchUp is the amount of information within the model, and the
ease with which you can retrieve it. Even if you never draw a line with SketchUp,
you can better understand projects before you head to the shop. If you start with
an existing model, you can learn how to orbit, zoom and pan without the pressure of
creating something. You can learn how to move components of a project around, get
a better look, and take them apart without the fear of messing something up. The image
above is Roy Underhill’s Tool Chest from our June
2009 issue.  It's a good example because some of the joinery is tricky, and
that can be hard to describe with printed words and pictures. But it is easy to understand
if you take it apart and look at it from any angle or distance you want.

To get started, you need to download and install SketchUp on your computer. The software
is free from Google, and information about getting it can be found on the Popular
Woodworking SketchUp Page. There, you can also find most of the models we have
made available (also absolutely free). You’ll find all of our models on our 3D Warehouse
collection, accessible through our SketchUp page. Browse the collection and download
something you’re interested in.


Spend some time just looking at the model from different points of view, using the
Orbit, Zoom and Pan tools. There's a lot of help available within the program, and
one of the best helpers is the Instructor window. You can find it under the Windows
menu in the program; when you have it open, it will show you the basic moves of each
of the available tools. Click on a tool and the Instructor window will tell you how
to use it.  When you're able to move around the model without getting lost or
bumping into things, start using the Move tool to take the model apart. In the image
above, I clicked on the top of the chest and moved it vertically. Notice that the
top moves as one piece and the entire top is highlighted in blue.


That lets you know that SketchUp thinks of the top as a single unit – a component.
If you click to highlight it, right click, then select Explode from the pop up menu,
you’ll be able to move the individual parts around. All of the parts of the model
can be found in the Components window. A good SketchUp model is organized this way.
When you draw things in SketchUp you draw lines and connected lines will form faces.
When you have enough lines and faces for something to look like a piece of wood, make
it into a component and it will behave like a piece of wood. Here we have a good look
at how the joints of the frame work with each other and with the panel.

Down at the base of the tool chest we can see what St. Roy was talking about in the
article. Again, all I did was orbit and zoom to the area I wanted to look at. Then,
using the Move tool, I disassembled the base. Putting it back together will give me
a good idea of the sequence of moves to make in the shop when working on the real
thing.

When I was a kid, I learned a lot about how things work by taking them apart. And
unlike the telephone in the kitchen that always sounded tinny after I put it back
together, you can take things apart in SketchUp fearlessly. If you mess things up
you won’t have to run away from home; you can download a fresh version of the model.
And in the process, you’ll learn a lot about the program before you start to draw.

– Robert W. Lang

p.s. I’ll be teaching several SketchUp classes, and we’ll have a “drop-in” clinic
available for additional hands-on training, at the Woodworking
in America: Furniture Construction and Design conference, August 14-16 in St.
Charles, Ill. There’s still time to register.

Looking for More Free Woodworking Information?

• Sign up for our newsletters to get free plans, techniques and reviews HERE.
• Like tools? We do! Read our latest tool coverage HERE.
• Looking for free project plans? We have hundreds. Click HERE.
• Learn a new woodworking technique today. Click HERE.
• Want more videos? See all our free videos HERE.
• Check out our selection of half-price woodworking books HERE.
• Get 8 years of Popular Woodworking on one CD. Click HERE.

SketchUp is a great free
program for planning your work. But there is a tremendous amount of value to it even
if you never draw a line. Printing out full size patterns is but one example. We’ve
assembled a collection of models on Google’s
3D Warehouse, and have the same collection categorized on our SketchUp
Page. Anyone can download and use any of these models absolutely free. Here’s
an example of how I made a pattern for an ogee bracket foot from one of the latest
additions to our collection.

This is a blanket chest made by Glen Huey that graces the cover of our August
2009 issue (on its way to subscribers as I write this). After downloading the
model, I went to the Window menu in SketchUp and opened the window named Components.
I scrolled down the list until I found the foot I wanted, and dragged it into an empty
space in the model window. Sometimes dragging your feet can be a good thing. Then
I zoomed in until the foot filled the screen.

I wanted a dead on view from the front, and there are a couple of ways to get it.
I added the Standard Views toolbar to my installation, so I simply clicked
on the front facing little house. You can also get this view from the Camera menu
in SketchUp under Standard Views/Front. Then I went back to the Camera menu
and checked Parallel Projection instead of Perspective. Then I picked
a style from the Styles window to make the model simply black lines with no
background colors.

The next settings I needed are under the File Menu/Document Setup window. Uncheck Fit
View to Page and type in the number 1 in both windows under Print Scale.
My machine can be a little fussy on this, and I need to highlight both windows before
I hit the OK button.

You might need to fiddle with the Print Setup and Printer settings on
your computer. Different computers and printers do this a little differently, but
the idea is you want the printer to print at 100% and not scale the image to fit the
page. If you’re trying to print something that won’t fit a single page, SketchUp will
tile the images on as many pages as it takes. I snapped in a dimension within the
model to make checking the scale easier. With the full size pattern in hand I can
stick the pattern to a piece of wood with some spray adhesive and start cutting.

This is an incredible time saver and a simple way to transfer outlines from the pages
of our magazine to your hunk of wood. If you haven’t looked at SketchUp because you
don’t do your own design work, I urge you to check
it out. This is only one of the many things you can do in addition to drawing.
If you have a favorite "after the drawing is done" task for SketchUp, share 
it by leaving a comment below.


– Robert W. Lang

Click Here
For Conference Information

Looking for More Free Woodworking Information?

• Sign up for our newsletters to get free plans, techniques and reviews HERE.
• Like tools? We do! Read our latest tool coverage HERE.
• Looking for free project plans? We have hundreds. Click HERE.
• Learn a new woodworking technique today. Click HERE.
• Want more videos? See all our free videos HERE.
• Check out our selection of half-price woodworking books HERE.
• Get 8 years of Popular Woodworking on one CD. Click HERE.

In my elementary school, the janitor was a shadowy character who mostly stayed in the basement, in his private area next to the boiler room. Yet he was powerful enough to make everyone (even teachers and the principal) remove their shoes when he waxed the gym floor. And he had a collection of chemicals to clean up any mess, even the ones Rickie Hensel made when he threw up during biology films. He came to mind the other day as I headed to the hardware store to get some “janitorial strength” ammonia.

The reason for my quest is a project I’m working on for the next issue of Woodworking
Magazine. I’m making an assortment of layout tools, and as I prepared a quartersawn
white oak straightedge, the idea of giving it a fumed
oak finish lodged in my brain. The problem was that my straightedge was too small
to justify building a tent, and too big to fit in any of the airtight containers we
had around the shop. I began to wonder if “Janitorial Strength” ammonia would color
the wood if I wiped it on and let it dry. Just as my project was an in-between size,
this stuff is stronger than household ammonia, but nowhere near as nasty as what I
use for fuming. The picture above shows the result of wiping white oak with a rag,
and keeping it wet for about an hour.

Before coloring, I wet the wood with distilled water, allowed it to dry overnight,
then sanded it down with #320-grit sandpaper. This step kept the ammonia solution
from raising the grain. The resulting color was close to the same disappointing grey
you see when fuming, maybe a shade or two lighter. When the wood is dry, the chemical
reaction that makes the color change is done. You don’t need to neutralize it with
anything. I just lightly rubbed with a nylon abrasive pad before applying a top coat.
Ragging on a coat of amber shellac brings out the color. Additional coats of shellac
will continue to darken and tint the piece, and black
wax will turn it dark brown. I was happy with this medium brown color, so I only
applied one coat of shellac.

Here is the difference between an unfinished piece of wood (from the same board as
the finished piece) and the end result. Most hardware stores carry 10-percent ammonia,
and you do need to exercise caution when you handle it. Make sure you’re in a well-ventilated
area; I recommend taking it outside. Wear some goggles to protect your eyes in case
of a splash, and gloves to keep it from burning your skin. And as a bonus, a little
ammonia in a lot of water is a great way to clean
a shellac brush.


– Robert W. Lang

Click Here
For Conference Information

Looking for More Free Woodworking Information?

• Sign up for our newsletters to get free plans, techniques and reviews HERE.
• Like tools? We do! Read our latest tool coverage HERE.
• Looking for free project plans? We have hundreds. Click HERE.
• Learn a new woodworking technique today. Click HERE.
• Want more videos? See all our free videos HERE.
• Check out our selection of half-price woodworking books HERE.
• Get 8 years of Popular Woodworking on one CD. Click HERE.