Wood-fired!

Making a tea caddy

An earlier post showed the tea caddies I made for Xmas presents. This post describes some of the techniques used.

The cross section shows the overall construction. The lid and base are made as floating panels to allow for movement of the wood. The main feature is the use of an insert to create the flange for holding the lid in place.

The project started when I tried to find a way to use some very highly rippled eucalypt. This is difficult to machine - or indeed to hand plane - and is so striking that it asks to be used as a highlight rather than the main timber. I decided to try harness the strong linear figure by quartering it and arranging the ripples in a square. The wood was thicknessed to about 2.5mm using a drum sander¹.

Four quarters of a square were cut on a bandsaw with the ripple running slightly off parallel to the outside edge (the hypotenuse). These were squared up on the shooting board, glued and held together with my favourite clamp - blue painter’s tape. The completed lid was then sanded to about 2mm. Because the lid was so thin it could be fitted directly into a 2mm slot in the walls of the box. No rebate was necessary.

The base was constructed in the same way but using 5mm padauk. The edges were rebated to fit the 2mm slot.

The box walls were made from 8mm padauk stock. The edges were mitred roughly on the table saw and then hand-planed using my mitring jig. The 2mm slots were routed at the top and bottom to accommodate the lid and base.

Glue-up starts by laying out the sides on the blue clamping tape. The top and base are inserted as the mitres are glued and the box sides effectively rolled up.
Additional tape is stretched around the box to pull the mitres tight.

Once the box is dry, the tape is removed and the four faces cleaned up with a plane. The box is then cut in two on the bandsaw. Notice the tape used internally to prevent the glue from marring the inside faces. Once this is removed the sawn edges are planed smooth and flat.

The pic at right shows the lid and base reconnected after the join is tidied up. With a tiny amount of pressure from the cute clamps, the join is effectively invisible. The black dot shows where the lid joins the base.

A 4×4mm deep rebate was cut into the outside edge of where the lid and base meet as shown in the cross-section. An 8×4mm (plus a little to allow for cleanup) piece of the same rippled eucalypt was cut to fill the rebate. The piece is oriented so that the grain and ripple direction match the lid as if they were continuous. This provides a side view of the ripple where you can see the waves of grain direction. (Check out the side view in the cross-section image at top and the finished box at the end.)

The inserts are mitred and glued into the rebate in the base of the tea caddy. Blue clamps are used again.

The lid is tuned so that it slides easily but firmly into the insert. The insert is then planed flush with the base and lid.

A 5mm mother-of-pearl dot was inlaid on the base and the lid to show the correct orientation of the lid. The boxes were finished on the outside only with nitrocellulose lacquer rubbed back to about 6000 grit.

1. This is a classic role for a drum sander. The ripple is caused by waves in the grain direction. This means that there is no direction in which you can plane with the grain. Even with a super sharp blade and a high blade angle, it is near impossible to plane without some tear-out [↩]

4 comments January 31st, 2009

Organised Spice

Melissa from The Traveler’s Lunchbox has posted a provocative article on the age-old question of how to store your spices. You only need to read a few of the comments (68 before I had my say) to realise how important this topic is to many people.

Regular readers will understand how close to my heart this subject is. As both a wanton¹ foodie and cook and a woodworker who specialises in cabinets and containers, there aren’t many things I am more passionate about.

It is easy (and uninteresting) to produce a stylish looking way of storing a few spices but as Melissa points out such designs rarely accommodate the practical requirements of the even-slightly serious cook.

First up is the number of spices. The subject of my Combined Passions post is a box containing 50 spices (more pictures here). While I may have cribbed a bit to get to 50, that is because I only used whole spices (with the single exception of Ras el Hanout). If you add in ground spices and spice mixes the number can grow to well beyond 50. Any storage solution must accommodate at least this number.

Second is volume. Dinky little jars and boxes might look good in kitchen design magazines but real cooks buy many spices in large bags. (The difference in freshness and price between supermarket jars and bags of spices from ethnically-specialised food shops is staggering.) Being able to fit 10 black cardamon pods into your spice container is no good if you use more than this quantity each week.

Third is variation. Some spices you have a small amount of - saffron for example. Some spices - such as black limes or dried mango - take up lots of room. Some spices you use a little of and some a lot. Your storage solution should efficiently deal with this variation.

Then there is the freshness issue. Many solutions, including my own wooden cabinets, don’t provide the air-tight seal that is essential to maintaining fresh spices.

There are other considerations such as light, accessibility and of course I don’t mean to totally dismiss style!

So having laid out some requirements you might imagine I am about to give you a solution. Well no I’m not. I haven’t sorted it out myself yet. Melissa’s solution might work for you - or one of the other systems decsribed in the comments to her post. My current solution is more prosaic.

I’m using a few different approaches (I won’t call them solutions). I have a spice cabinet that I made a long time ago (before I had many clues about woodwork) that is based on the 18thC Pennsylvania spice boxes. This is my most enjoyable storage. It’s still a thrill to go to the cabinet, take a drawer over to my pot and scoop out a teaspoon or two of the required spice. This approach copes with varying quantities quite well but fails on keeping the spices fresh. I use it for spices that have their own custom containers such as vanilla pods and saffron threads (a gorgeous tin decorated in Islamic patterns brought back for me from Tehran by a friend). Also for high-turnover spices like cumin that don’t get time to go stale, and whole spices like star anise that tend to hold their flavour.

My main storage though is practical but lacking in romance. I have several plastic storage containers about the size of shoe-boxes. Each of these holds up to a dozen spices in their original plastic bags. The bags stand upright across the width of the container. As they are usually organised by size or history, I used to have to search through each container to find the spice I need. Even I realised that this was sub-optimal so I invested in a Dymo labeller and now only have to scan the ends of the containers to narrow my search. Perhaps I secretly enjoy the bit of hunting and gathering in the process.

Of course there are also the dinky jars on the window sill (the worst place to store spices) - about 40 from a quick count. And then there are all the liquids such as rose and orange water, 5 varieties of soy, oils, vinegars and mustards - I better stop before getting to the pantry cupboard!

It is still a goal in my life to design a spice storage solution that satisfies all these requirements and is sexy to boot. But since I have a small kitchen that could do with many other improvements it may be some time yet. I console myself that you need to keep some goals unfulfilled² so there is something to think about in the shower each morning.

Like Melissa I would love to hear about your solutions.

1. or is that wonton! [↩]
2. my wife laughs out loud at this point [↩]

4 comments October 26th, 2008

Base and Lid - Part 4 of the Wedding Present

This continues the tips and techniques for the document box known here as the Wedding Present. This post deals with the bottom panel and the lid.

The base

Before the carcass was glued-up a slot was cut on the lower inside of each side piece (taking care to stop at the tails).

Slots: The lower slot is the groove to take the ‘tongue’ of the base panel. (The other slot is for a narrow rail that will support the gondola.)

The base is a floating panel. This allows the base to expand and contract across its width with changes in humidity. The panel was prepared by edge-joining two pieces and thicknessing to 6mm. A rebate was cut on each edge to match the slot cut in the sides of the box. A very slight bevel was put on the edge that will be visible from the bottom.

Base panel: A rebate is cut to leave a tongue that is a firm fit in the thickness of the slot. The depth of tongue leaves 1mm each side for expansion across the grain. (The panel is shown upside down - the tongue is flush with the top surface.)

This diagram shows the arrangement. The orientation is chosen to give a continuous closed surface inside the box. The underneath will show the narrow gap between the base and the sides of the box that allows for expansion of the base. The small bevel relieves the sharp edge that would be visible.

The base panel was sanded and fully finished (with nitrocellulose lacquer) and fitted before the final glue-up of the carcass.

The lid

The lid is a floating panel in a narrow frame. The frame is mitred at the corners and strengthened by floating tenons. The same tongue and groove method was employed to hold the panel as for the bottom.

The mortice for the floating tenon is made with a slot cutter mounted in a router table. Marks on the fence tell me where to start and stop the cuts.

The frame was made before the bevels were put on the outside edges so that the maximum cramping area was available. The chevron-shaped floating tenons are visible in the following photo.

Clamping a frame

The setup used to glue the corners of the lid frame. Note two of the chevron-shaped floating tenons in the middle.

I use this method for nearly all frame and box construction where the corners are mitred. A scrap of wood (usually MDF) is glued to the outside faces of the members so that good cramping pressure can be securely applied.

The brief account of the process is:

1. cut 45° triangular blocks of the same thickness as the elements
2. glue the long side (hypotenuse) of the blocks to the frame element - mark or estimate the centre of the joint and place the blocks so that the clamping pressure can be applied directly across that centre
3. glue up and cramp the joint
4. saw away most of each cramping block when the joint is dry - taking care not to touch the frame
5. plane the outside of the joint to remove the remaining waste material

Plane the remains of the cramping block from the lid.

Now this seems like a lot of effort. However weighed against the risk of not getting a good joint in a frame or box I believe it is well justified. (Anyone who has tried to fudge the cramping only to have it fall apart in the middle of glue-up knows that this is a good bet.) I have used this technique on dozens of projects. It is the best way to guarantee a minimal glue-line and joint longevity.

I usually use yellow glue for this. Some people apply only a dab and don’t rub the components together in the hope that the block will snap off afterwards but this carries its own risks. I have also tried using double-sided tape, but the risk is still there and has certainly bitten me. My advice is to glue it on strongly so you’re not afraid to use plenty of cramping pressure and just plane it off afterwards!

I always use tape to mask the faces in the inside corner of the joint to aid in cleaning up the excess glue (as described here).

After two corners have been glued and cleaned, the finished panel is inserted and the last two corners are glued at the same time.

Gluing the last two corners of the lid with the finished panel in place

The completed box lid.

The lid after bevelling and finishing.

Part 1 The present
Part 2 The wood
Part 3 The dovetails

Add comment April 17th, 2008

Working with very fine stock

I’m rather fond of small boxes like this one that I made some years ago. I produced a number of these for an artist friend who was giving them as gifts on a trip to her homeland of Japan.
I like the constructed look of the top panel (for some reason I favour building from elements over starting with a whole and subtracting the negative space - perhaps it’s respect for the material - Huon in this case - and not wanting to waste any). I also enjoy the light openness and the fact that a perforated box is good for holding aromatics (there’s that food thing again!).

I’m just starting to experiment with something similar but with open-work on all sides of a cube.
One side will be based on a traditional shoji design. The whole cube will only be 65mm on a side so the stock involved is small - probably 3mm square. I’m using straight-grained Huon pine. Planing stock at this size can be problematic especially when you want to use your favourite No. 6. For those you don’t know the relative size the photo on the left gives you some idea.

Before I’d had to think about how to do this, I was browsing the excellent blog of a US woodworker The Village Carpenter and saw her entry about her favourite jig. I could see the great value of this jig - especially for working with small stock.
Small stock is flexible so it needs to be planed on a flat surface - holding it in a vice is difficult because there’s not much to clamp on to and any lack of perfect support along the length of the vice jaws will allow the stock to press into the jaws and you end up with a stick of varying thickness.

The standard way of planing a stick out of the vise is to lay it on the bench with one end butted against a stop of some sort. Again very small stock is flexible and will easily bend and possibly break if any significant force is applied.

This jig offers a way of holding small stock on a flat surface and of clamping it along its entire length so that it has nowhere to go.

Building the jig only took a few minutes. I made mine with low fences so they didn’t get in the way of handling the small stock. I wanted to plane stock down to 3mm so I needed to make my wedge thinner than this and I needed a thin packer to move the stock away from the straight fence.

After trying a few materials I settled on some 1.5mm matboard. It doesn’t lie completely flat but I haven’t had any trouble with this yet. If I really need a strong thin flat material that will grip the stock well and will stay very flat I will use some 2mm picture glass but the edge that clamps the stock will need to be ground flat.

I made an additional pair of wedge and packer out of 3mm MDF for planing stock that is greater than 3mm but less than the height of the fence.

This jig worked very well for me and I expect it will get a lot of use in my workshop.

Postscript: I’ve reduced my stock size to 2mm x 3mm and the jig still performs well planing down to 2mm!

Add comment April 6th, 2008

Combined passions

Late last year I had a chance to combine several of my passions in one project. The result is this spice “sampler” tray.

I presented the piece to an old friend who was turning 50 (hence the choice of 50 compartments). The dividers are huon pine. The box is fiddleback blackwood. The passions start with (obviously) wood and food. Add to that my love of containers (cabinets, boxes, drawers, etc) and my love of repetition. Less obvious perhaps is my interest in how complexity emerges from simplicity (and in this case apparent simplicity from complexity). I also enjoy studio photography and this is a great subject for the camera with its variations in colour, form and texture.

More images are shown at my main web site.

This legend identifies the contents. I limited myself to whole spices with the single exception of the Ras el hanout - which I just couldn’t leave out (it being top-shelf!) - so that the spices wouldn’t mix together over time.

1 comment April 3rd, 2008