Thursday, October 25, 2018

Curio Cabinet, Part 1a: Another Joint

In the first post about the curio cabinet, I experimented with a few different types of joinery for the door.  I've procrastinated long enough that I came across another joint that I think will be better than the others.  Sellers just put out a video on the mitered bridle joint and, while it's not perfect for my application, I think it's better than my other choices.
Front view of joint - all you see is a miter
In this joint, the stile is simply a bridle mortise with one side (the front part, inn my case) of the bridle mitered.
The stile
The rail has the tenon and the bottom shoulder is like any standard rectangular tenoned part.  But the top shoulder is mitered.
The rail
When assembled, the back of the joint looks like an ordinary bridle.
Back side of the joint
I have two things that complicate this joint.  First, I'm adding a bead to the inside edge of all members, which is not a problem at all.  But second, I'm adding a rabbet on the back side for the glass to fit inside.  With the dimensions I'm shooting for, the rabbets on both the stiles and rails need to be stopped rabbets.
The stopped rabbet on the rail
The stopped rabbet on the stile
Stopped rabbets are easy and fun to cut with a chisel and mallet.  I'm planning to put a pane of glass in the sides of the cabinet too, but I'll be using another method of construction there.  More on that later.

Monday, October 22, 2018

A Few Estate Sale Items

This blog has been silent for a while - between travel and being sick and generally getting out of my "groove", I had plenty of excuses.
View from Observation Point in Zion Nat'l Park, UT
I was out running errands Friday when I saw a sign for an estate sale.  The owner had been an engineer and had been into so many different things - electronics, model trains, photography - unfortunately woodworking was not one of those things.  But he did some minor woodworking to support the train habit.

You never know what you might find.  There are lots of things that are useful across multiple hobbies.  I picked up just a few things.
A few estate sale items
First, there are two 6" steel rules, one from Starrett and one from Lufkin.
Starrett #607R and Lufkin #2207R
Anybody out there know what the "R" is for on the model numbers?

I love this next item - it reminds me of an old metal pencil sharpener that we had in my house when I was a kid.  It's by "Boston".  I already have a pencil sharpener, but it's made of plastic and I can see the Boston will become the user right away.  It even had two of the three screws needed to attach it to a wall inside the shavings drum.
Boston pencil sharpener
The next item will come in handy at tool shows: it's a small lighted magnifier.  It takes two AAA batteries and one had leaked and messed up the inside a bit.  But after a cleaning and new batteries, it works fine.  The white button on top actuates the light, which is on the back
Called the "Scanner", the pouch had the name "Triplett" on it
I couldn't find any info online about Triplett as a manufacturer of lighted magnifiers, so I can't be certain whether the pouch and magnifier are made by the same company.  But the magnifier fits so well in the pouch and I found them in the same drawer.  Who knows ...

Finally, there was the saw seen in the first picture.  It's a model K-1 12" backsaw made by Disston for Keystone and has a "Warranted Superior" medallion.  It's not old enough to have an etching on the plate, but you can see some of the inked design.  I can see it better in person than in my pictures show.
The printed "etch" (there's got to be a more correct term for this)
In this pic, you can see better the "Keystone" lettering and the "K-1" inside the keystone shape
This saw has a steel spine, though other similar saws I've seen had brass backs, possibly brass plated.
My best guess is this saw is from the 60's or 70's.

I'll give more info on this saw when I post about it's future rehab.  For a better picture of the "etch", you can see what I think is the same saw on Lumberjocks here.