Other Uses for the Domino

While chatting with someone about the Domino, I realized a brief tour of other uses of the Domino might be interesting.  Here goes:

This shelf in my shop currently has three things hanging from it.  There used to be a few more jigs there, too.

The top of the shelf has a series of equally spaced Domino mortises...

The underside of the hung items also has mortises.  As you can see, the shelf is where I pop an unglued Domino in whichever mortise I need to hang items.  For awhile, I also had a moisture meter hung by a Domino since it had a wrist strap I could hook over it.  But the Domino isn't just used for stowing things on this shelf.  Next to the shelf is a large box that protects the water softener and water filter from clumsy woodworkers.  On the top of that, are 3 mortises (left, right, and one about 2/3 more to the right); each has an unglued Domino.

In this photo, you can see that the spray gun stand that was hung on the shelf can be hung from this box when I'm spraying outside the garage; the stand doesn't stand up well on its own with the long tail and whip on the gun so this is really handy.

In this photo, the "ladders" that were on the shelf are now deployed onto the box; they are used to hold panels as they dry with dye or finish (they can be much wider as they cantilever off the frontmost nail).  I made this while preparing 10 shelves for a cabinet and it has been very useful.  It is also the reason for the "2/3 more to right" Domino so it can handle shorter shelves or drawer parts.  As you can see in the picture, the exotic MDF is ready for French polishing :)

Ah, the back junk wall above my bench.  That horizontal stick of Oak is there for mounting mini shelves like the shelf for the scrapers (or the clamping squares to its left).

Push the Domino flush to the wall and plunge, which puts the Dominos 10mm from the wall.  Use that spacing to make the mortises on the bottom of the shelf and you have a quick way to make a removable shelf; easy to scoot over, too.  If you change your mind on a shelf's location, glue the Dominos in place and cut them flush.

I had a laptop in the shop for a long time.  I wanted a stand to hold it, but also wanted it removable.  I ran across the stand today in a hidden corner of the shop (in the garbage now as you've seen I have a wall-mounted monitor now).  Where my monitor is today, there was a horizontal strip of oak like the one for the scraper tray where this laptop holder could be quickly inserted or removed (as it stuck out over the bench a little, I'd often remove it when assembling something tall enough to hit it).

The laptop sat on the incline to make the keyboard more accessible; the oak front sticks up high enough to stop the laptop from sliding down!  Notice the two Dominos in the back.

On the back of my "Sysport" drawers, I use a Domino to register in the Systainers' locking slot to keep them in place.  I've used this trick on non-Systainers, too, as just a nub that sticks up is enough to keep a box from sliding around, but also easily removed.

If you remember the entry about the Moxon vice, I made a 'jig' mortise with the Domino using its registration pins so I could make mating mortises in jig accessories that attach to the vice.  First one I made and love is one for locating a drawer side plumb while cutting dovetails.

Out of the shop, I use a couple Domino tricks as well.  My dad made this ceramic bald Eagle long ago.  I borrowed it when I first moved in :)  That shelf is actually my first woodworking project in hardwood.  It is shaped from a tracing of that bird's shadow.  Now, I think the shelf needs more shaping, but I like it anyway.  It is mounted to the wall with 3 Dominos into the bracket (the bracket itself is screwed into wall bracing):

The two slots to the left are the "middle" size giving a bit of play; the other is elongated: 2 of the "wide" mortises in a row.  The shelf attaches by putting one Domino into the elongated slot then sliding the shelf into the other two:

Once inserted, a small screw goes through the top of the bracket to pin the Domino closest the corner.  It's rock solid, but easily removed.  Note that this shelf doesn't have to hold a lot of weight; 3 Dominos in shear like this would actually be pretty strong, but not enough for a hand-crafted anvil or anything.  Also, for the curious, there's a recess in the middle of the shelf that matches the base of the eagle so it can't vibrate off the shelf and also it places the eagle in the correct orientation it was in when the shadow was traced.

As a final example, this built-in cabinet is in my master closet.  The mirror in the back is held in place by 5mm Dominos.  No, no, I didn't mortise into the mirror :)  The Domino holes are set back from the front molding enough to hold the mirror in place; should I ever move, I can pretty easily remove the cabinet and take out the mirror for transport (no mirror mastic!)

Oh, yeah, I use the Domino for joinery, too :)

Utility of a Router Bearing Kit

I'm finishing up a gift box for my mom's Christmas present.  Yes, I know, today is the 27th... anyway, I had to raise a small panel twice with a big honkin' 3.25" coving panel raising bit.  Those things generate a healthy amount of respect, I tell you.  But me fessing up to being way more frightened of a panel raiser than a rabbetting bit is not the topic of this post, if nonetheless true :)

A reader brought up a valid concern: the photos below were all taken the day after I raised the panel; they are staged photos to show how I used bearings to accomplish the panel and to highlight a caution.  Use push pads, stock holders or even a coping sled to keep yourself safe from the bit...

I raised the panel twice with a cove to create a unique shape; this is for the top of her gift.  As an aside, get creative with the profiles you have as "stacking" them can make unique profiles you don't see elsewhere; this is especially useful for boxes.  In my case, this stacking of a simple cove panel profile mimiks the "linen fold" bit I used for other parts of the box.

To accomplish this profile, I had to change the bearing on the bit to set the inside shoulder distance from the edge. The two bearings right in front of the panel were the keys.  I had these bearings in a Slot Cutter Survival Kit from Eagle America.  Panel raisers stack their cutters on a shank used for stacking slot cutters, which is why this bearing set was so useful.  Note that it wouldn't be useful to replace the bearing on the top of your rabbetting bit as that is a different inside diameter (there are top-bearing kits for that), but that said, I grabbed a few of those bearings as well and converted a rabbetting bit I got in a set to a 3/8" rabbet from 1/2" to compliment the 1/2" I already had.  Very useful.

Back to the panel cutter, between the cove profile and the back-cutter was a bearing that would ride on your stock to set the standard profile.  That's the bearing I swapped out for these larger diameter bearings.  I also left off the backcutter as I didn't want that.  The problem, though, with removing the backcutter is that you reveal a section of the shank that isn't threaded... so how can you lock down the cove cutter?

For that, I stacked bearings and a thin shim between them (less wear on the bearings) to get to the threaded part.

The photo shows how, when I had the larger diameter bearing, I had a smaller diameter bearing under it simply as filler.  The bearing kit, though, does have a variety of shims; I just opted to use another bearing rather than stack 6 or more shims.

This photo partly shows something I want to point out as a caution when stacking bearings and shims: as I cut this panel, I was constantly making passes and raising the bit a hair (small panel, big bit, hard Maple end-grain...)  Imagine the above picture as the bit goes higher. At a point, I'd be riding on the narrow edge of the bearing and it would be easy to get the stock underneath the bearing.  If I'm lucky, I maintain control but dig into my stock in ways that glue and sawdust won't fix.  A more likely scenario is that it catches the stock and throws it.  The hand nearest the starter pin might get hit like a kickback, but the other hand might get carried with the board into the bit.  So pay attention to the registration of the bearing on your stock.  Without stacking bearings (using the bit "as is"), there would be a back cutter on the top and a bearing sandwiched between them; the case can happen there, too, if you raise the cove cutter (pattern cutter) high enough to get the bearing about the panel.

I point this out because the bazillion cycles of raise-bit-route-panel can get you into inattentive repetition and you might move the bearing up or down off a safe registration on the stock.

I bought that slot cutter survival kit with a slot-cutter set, but I swear I've used it more often to modify other stacked bits than my slot cutters.  Highly recommend finding a kit like this and having it on hand.  Also recommend a few of the top bearings although usually you can steal one from another bit for a particular operation.

Stuff I learned from The Wood Whisperer

Worked my way to the first person I learned from: Marc Spagnuolo more commonly known as The Wood Whisperer from his podcast blog site.  (He's the goofy one in the picture... well, actually, that's not clear-cut either...)

If you've read my profile, I happened upon his site long ago while bored in a hotel room during a new-hire training trip.  I was doing some remodeling job and wanted new ideas.  That sparked an interest in learning more to, you know, make my own stuff, save some money :)  Actually – perhaps surprisingly – I knew making it yourself cost much more than store-bought stuff, but at least you could make your own goofy ideas come into fruition (or into the fire pit!)

I tore through the videos he had back then; they were very accessible and explained the parts glossed over in TV DIY shows.  Good stuff.

As for the title of this posting... the stuff I learned are the fundamentals, but that's what you need to build up to your own "thing".  I started on his site when it was pretty young; if you just start there now, you'll have, like, a bazillion videos to get through.  More popcorn.

Back in the day, he wasn't so busy so I made him busy with my email questions or chats when he was live streaming from the shop.  To give you an idea of how long ago that was, it was before someone stole his Makita SCMS.  Yeah, that long ago.

He later started WoodTalkOnline, a lively woodworking forum; I learned a lot posting answers to people's questions; even so far as to go to the shop to try out and verify what I thought would work would in fact work.  Tedious, but helps you learn quickly.  Just never become part of the "Internet echo" that repeats the same tired nuggets of advice that may or may not have ever been verified.

Thanks, Marc!

Stuff I learned from Frank Klausz

I'm working in reverse-chronological order still on the list of people I learned from directly.  Next up, the Frank!  (There can be only one!)

Frank Klausz came to Phoenix to do a seminar and hands-on class; how could you pass that up?

Frank learned as an apprentice in Hungary; learning all hand tools and emphasizing how to use them efficiently.  Today, you can sell a product built with hand-tools as a selling point to distinguish it from the others in the market.  Back when Frank was an apprentice, everybody built by hand so the successful ones had to be precise and quick.

The seminar class was a slideshow presentation of some of Frank's work through the years and his thoughts on the pieces.  Frank's pretty good about letting you know his thoughts.  Later there was a long discussion about general woodworking practices along with a Q&A.  There were some interesting stories along the way.

The most interesting story to me was about Frank hanging out with is friends during his youth in Hungary. As he put it, when he saw a pregnant lady go by, he thought of side-money for beer.  I had to scratch my head on that one for a moment until he explained.  Back then, bathtubs for babies were made of wood so he knew she would need a wooden bathtub.  This led to an interesting story about making wooden tubs.  You see, the tubs were square and the end pieces would be joined to the sides with sliding dovetails or similar mechanical joint.  The bottom of the tub would be mechanically attached.

The way the joints were made was very intriguing.  The mating sides of a butt joint first had a piece of thick gauge wire placed on them (paint bucket handle, for example) and pounded down to make a long dent in the shape of the wire.  Now plane the edge until it is flat; you should have just hit the bottom of the dent.  Now assemble.  The compressed wood where the dent was will swell and be proud of the rest once wet and acts like a mechanical caulking keeping the joint water-tight.

The box was water-tight once some water swelled the joints.  As a testament to that way of building tubs, the water box for his water stones is made that exact same way.  Every morning in Frank's Cabinet Shop, they run water into the box until it swells then they use it all day with no leaking.

...and that sharpening box of his.  Loved it during the hands-on class so I built something based on it.  But since I only spritz the Shaptons with a water bottle, the box never gets any water but the slurry that drips off the stones.  Part of why I went with the Shaptons was the spritz-n-go way you can use them without long soaking or lots of water; I can use them on the bench right where I need them with no mess.  Regardless, if you have regular water stones, consider making a box like his as it was so convenient to sharpen anywhere... once the box was full of water.

The hands-on class was to make a small jewelry box doing the joinery, shaping, and finish with hand tools.  The initial stock was machine jointed, planed, and dimensioned.  This let us concentrate on learning hand-cut dovetails.  Frank's method is pins-first; though I cut them both ways, I tend to prefer pins-first.  What I loved about the class is the focus on efficiency.  For Frank, dovetails don't take long.  A large part of what makes his dovetails fast is a layout by eye.  Once you get used to doing the layout by eye, it's much quicker!  You can have the pins cut by the time you pull out your ruler to do the layout.  A good place to see this is in the YouTube timed dovetail competitions.  Other contenders have their marking gauge and dividers pre-set.  Frank shows up, that's his setup :)

Frank has an excellent DVD on dovetailing a drawer.  Highly recommend that you get it.  While you can tell it was shot last decade, the content is king!  What you get is a fast version of the first day of the hands-on class.  Pay attention to the comments Frank makes along the way as they are all to promote better efficiency.

The video series I did here on hand-cut dovetails was inspired by Frank's class and his video; it emphasizes doing the layout by eye for all of the types.  Worth practicing, definitely (yes, your first couple will, uhm, "look" laid out by eye!)

Thanks, Frank!

The Jointmaker Journal

Was having a bit of fun in the shop while frantically working on a Christmas gift...

It's just a minute of a tool-mounted camera I tried out; based on the response so far, I think the idea is too out there to include it in future videos.  But give it a look if you have a minute to spare :)