A Visit to Lie-Nielsen’s Plant

The Lie-Nielsen factory and store in Warren, Maine

My friend Jeff Fleisher and I, along with our wives, had an opportunity to visit the Lie-Nielsen plant last summer. Their shop and factory are located near the Maine seacoast in the little town of Warren. This was a trip we always wanted to make, and it was fascinating to both witness the production of the famous Lie-Nielsen tools and complete line of their tools in the company store.

A box of cap irons, ready for assembly.

There were two attractions—the store and the manufacturing plant. As soon as we got there, we ask for, and got, a brief tour of the plant. As we walked through the facility, workers were busy at such tasks as lapping the soles of planes, operating the CNC machines that make the bodies of the planes and other tools, and inserting plane blades in the large tanks where they are cryogenically treated. We also passed many trays of partly and fully assembled tools of all types, the area where the tools are assembled, and where they are reviewed for quality control and packaged. The plant encompasses several buildings, including a wood shop which we were unable to visit, and employs about 90 staff.

Scraper plane bodies.

We also spent time in the store, where Lie-Nielsen displays their products, plus others' tools, such as Auriou rasps. We took particular delight in examining all the specialty planes, with which we were least familiar. Each of us already has a pretty good selection of standard bench planes, but they too were fascinating, particularly because of their high quality.

Lie-Nielsen saws.

Of course, we couldn't get away without making some purchases. I bought a 1/4 inch mortise chisel and a sock for one of my bench planes and managed not to spend a lot on this trip. Truthfully I already own about all the planes I need, many of them manufactured here in Warren. It was a fun trip and even our wives, who have much less interest in woodworking that we do, enjoyed it.

Norm

Building a Sugar Chest

A sugar chest is a southern piece of furniture, a small cabinet that was used in the eighteenth century to hold sugar and keep it locked up from servants and children who might partake of this valuable commodity.  In the north, they might have been called cellarettes and used to store liquor where it could be locked up.  Charles Neil periodically offers a class to build a sugar chest of his own design and last year I decided to take it and build one of my own. 

Charles Neil explains the construction process.

It was a three-day class (pictures here).  Charles and his helpers had prepared some of the pieces ahead of time and had pre-cut and dimensioned the tiger maple to nearly finished size in order to save building time.  But most of the work of cutting and assembling the piece was ours to do. 

We started by building the base, which incorporated tapered legs and openings for a drawer and pull-out shelf.  Then, using Charles' signature dovetail template, which uses special Whiteside bits with narrow necks to simulate hand-cut dovetails, we dovetailed the case.

Cutting the dovetails in the case.

The finished pieces, ready to

 finish.

 By the end of the three days, we each had an assembled base, a glued-up case body, a drawer, a shelf and a lid to take home and finish.

Finishing involved laying down a trace coat of brown dye, sanding to 120 grit with a random orbit sander, trace coating a second time and sanding to 180 grit, then staining the piece with a New England mixture of water based dye.  The trace coats let you see what needs to be sanded and, by soaking into the soft grain, it helps "pop" the curl in the maple.  

Finally, using a new Apollo spray gun I sprayed five coats of General Finishes High Performance satin water-based finish, scuffing lightly between coats and applying the last two coats in quick succession so they would bond together and create a tough top coat.  Finally, I buffed the piece with a slightly soapy solution using a random orbit sander and Abralon sanding pads, 2000 and 3000 grit, which left a buttery smooth satin finish on the piece.

The finished sugar chest.

The final step was to assemble the parts into a whole.  The result was spectacular.  I learned a lot in the process of building this piece and am proud to have it on display in my dining room.

Charles periodically offers this class.  If you are interested in taking the class, which is held at his New Market, Virginia, workshop, check his web site or contact him to let him know you are interested.  Charles also produced a DVD on building the sugar chest, but I believe it is now out of production.  However, it would be worth contacting him to see if he has any remaining copies.

Whatever you are building, have fun doing it!

Norm

Learning the Leigh Dovetail Jig

Last summer, I purchased the Leigh D4R Pro dovetail jig.  This is the 24-inch model with moveable fingers that will allow me to set any configuration I desire and approximate as closely as possible the spacing and appearance of hand cut dovetails.  I decided on the larger model so I could build large chests if I decide to do so.

The first step is to learn how to cut through dovetails.  This isn't hard--I cut my first one soon after assembling the jig.  I quickly learned several things,  First, tighten the screws on all unused fingers to secure them tightly to the jig.  I didn't the first time I used it.  The vibration from routing caused the loose screws to fall out, and I found myself hunting for them in a pile of sawdust on the floor beneath the jig.  Not fun.  The second lesson is that the router depth for the tail board must be set to exactly the thickness of the pin board.  Otherwise, the tails are likely to stand proud once they're cut.  This has been difficult for me.  The instructions call for marking the tail board with a pencil by holding the pin board to the tail board, then setting the router bit to the center of the pencil line.  I have not yet succeeded in getting the depth set correctly this way.  A friend suggested using a marking gauge to mark the depth, and I think this is a better procedure.  I'll try it next time.

My first project with the dovetail jig is to build a shelf for my hand planes.  It will feature through dovetails on the corners and sliding dovetails for the shelves and upright dividers.  All of this can be cut with the Leigh jig. 

I've decided to buy a second router, identical to the first, so I can leave them set up with the proper bits for cutting pins and tails.  The router I'm using, shown in the photo, is a Porter Cable 691, a D-handled router.  I find it easy to handle on the jig, better than a larger router.

While the jig is going to get a lot of use on various projects, the main thing is I'm having fun with it.  And that's what it's all about, isn't it?

Norm

Face-Planing Stop

I saw in Jim Tolpin's new book, The New Traditional Woodworker, p. 26, a picture of a face-planing stop I liked.  It featured a thin board about 4-5 inches wide and perhaps 1/4 inch thick with a hook attached to one end.  The hook he showed was held in a vise.  So I decided to make one.

I used a scrap piece of thin walnut I had laying around and screwed a piece of poplar to one end.  I made it long enough to reach two bench dogs for stability.  I can hang it over the end of the bench and hold it in place with a couple of bench dogs, as shown here, a bench hook, or hold it in a vise.  In any case, it offers good stability as a face- planing stop.  The thin profile lets me plane thin pieces.  Since it can be positioned anywhere on my bench (that is, if I ever cleaned it off!), it will accommodate boards of any length,

This only took a few minutes to build and already I have used it a number of times.  If you use hand planes, and I hope you do, this is a simple appliance that will pay dividends.

Norm

Installing a Twin-Screw Vise

A couple of years ago, I bought the Veritas twin-screw vise from Lee Valley.  Since then, it has been sitting on the bottom shelf of my old workbench, awaiting the day when I would be able to install it.  With the near completion of my new workbench top, shown in the photo, that day finally came.  I should say days, plural, because installation was anything but simple, though in the end everything works pretty much as it should.

I built my bench with an apron the width of the outer vise jaw that extends the full length of the bench. (I know, Chris Schwarz recommends not having an apron on your bench to make clamping easier.  But I intend to drill dog holes horizontally to support long boards for edge planing.)  The apron became the back jaw of the vise.  As you can see, I also installed it on the left end of the side of the bench and not on the end as Lee Valley shows in their photo.

The installation went pretty much according to the instructions.  I have a caveat, the one given to me by a friend before I started my own installation--"read the instructions at least a thousand times."  One of the key points is drilling the large holes for the screws.  Their location must be measured very accurately so it is well worth triple checking the measurements.  Also, my friend had drilled his holes by hand-holding his drill. As a result, his jaws bind up when fully extended.  I used a drill guide I got from Woodcraft to hold the drill at 90 degrees, the same jig I'll use to drill dog holes later on.  Even so, my holes got slightly off and I had to ream them out with a file so the fittings would lay at 90 degrees to the rear jaw.  After that, with the exception of making the chain fit (the instructions are weak on the point of assembling the chain), it was pretty much a piece of cake.  The result--it works as it should.

Almost.  The instructions call for planing the outer jaw at an angle so it is tighter at the top than at the bottom. I tried doing this with a hand plane and made a mess of it.  So I ran it through the planer to make it flat again.  Having done that, the jaws don't pull entirely tight at the top.  So someday I will disassemble the vise and re-plane the outer jaw at the suggested angle.  I recommend doing it according to instructions the first time.

In the end, it is a great vise and I am delighted to have it in place where I can use it.  The lack of a vise was one of the main reasons I built the new workbench top.  Now I'm ready for projects that will make good use of it.

Norm

Building a New Workbench Top

The final glue-up.

After using a good, hard maple workbench at Jeff Headley's workshop, it became clear to me that I needed to upgrade my own workbench before I would be able to do the chiseling and planing I'd need to do to complete the Winchester style Chippendale desk I started in Jeff's class.  So I bought a copy of Chris Schwarz' book on workbenches and read it through, then decided that rather than building an entirely new bench, I could do quite well by building a new top and installing it on my current base, which is made of 2X4s laminated into 4X4s. 

Ready to plane.

I began by buying and acclimating 8-foot 8/4 hard maple boards.  With the help of a friend, I jointed and planed these, then ripped them to 3-inch widths.  This is the only time I have had trouble with my SawStop contractor's saw.  It ripped the first half dozen boards smoothly, but after that point it began to stall until it refused to cut at all.  I later discovered that the motor was overheating from the hard cutting.  It finished the job the next day with no hitches. 

After cutting the boards, I stood them on edge and glued them up in sets of three, then glued up those sets until I had a nearly complete bench top.  My plan was to attach a six-inch apron to the front of the bench.  Before doing that, I installed a Veritas twin-screw vise and front jaw to the apron to be sure it would fit.  Once that was working well, I disassembled the vise and completed the final glue-up.

Low-angle jack plane.

That's where things stand now.  What remains is to plane the bench top smooth and level, even up the ends of the bench (they are a bit uneven at present) and install the new top on the old base.  I'll use a Lie-Nielsen low-angle jack plane with a toothed blade to take the roughness off the top, then complete the job with a low-angle jointer and smoothing plane.

Norm

Fairfax Fall Festival

Our booth location on a street corner

 Last weekend, Jeff Fleisher and I set up a booth at the Fall Festival held in downtown Fairfax, Virginia.  Jeff had a 10X10 foot tent and we each purchased five-foot tables to show our wares. We had what we judged to be a good location--a street corner close to the food vendors.  We had prepared well in advance.  I made large signs featuring our business names and our work, which you can see hanging at the rear of the tent.

Jeff was offering platters, a few bowls, some jewelry boxes--including one with chip carving on the lid--and some small book or CD racks.  I displayed about 50 pens, some business card holders in cherry and walnut, and small desk clocks in the same woods.

Closeup of our booth

It was a beautiful day and the crowds were large and continuous.  But soon we noticed that people were carrying food but few shopping bags, which showed that they were out for a nice day but were not buying much.  That was certainly the case at our tent.  I sold only two clocks, one pen and one business card holder.  Jeff sold only one bowl.  I don't think we made enough money to pay for our booth location.

We concluded that we would not do this show again.  It is fine for folks to have a nice outing, but there isn't much of an incentive to buy things.  We are hoping that our next show--a two-day show in November--will be a better one.  It is billed as a Holiday Crafts Festival so it may draw a better crowd.  And, with the holiday gift-giving season approaching, perhaps attendees will be in a better buying mood.

Norm