layout New layout project: Sakuragi no yu sen

[cteno4]

Ok, good. But still not the tool for the longitudinal cuts as you can only do this by clamping extra wood and fences to the wood to cut them with a circular saw. Even tough with a hand router. Proper tool is a router table or table saw,

 

I’m sorry to be blunt, but you just don’t know what you are doing here, I’ve lectured enough on all this, just please be careful with the circular saw and attempting those cuts.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

5 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Ok, good. But still not the tool for the longitudinal cuts as you can only do this by clamping extra wood and fences to the wood to cut them with a circular saw. Even tough with a hand router. Proper tool is a router table or table saw,

 

I’m sorry to be blunt, but you just don’t know what you are doing here, I’ve lectured enough on all this, just please be careful with the circular saw and attempting those cuts.

 

jeff

I can't afford nor have the space for a table saw. I was given similar advice to clamping extra wood to achieve those cuts with the portable saw. I don't know what other way I can accomplish this. 

 

No, but I'm learning along the way. I'll be reluctant to change the wood I've bought for this in any way until I'm properly prepared and confident. 

[cteno4]

By putting the notch into your sides you have locked yourself into putting simple rabbet joints onto your corners to deal with the notch. Using a fancier joint with the notch will be really difficult as you first need to cut the rabbet joint then your complex joint into that.
 

there is a reason why to use thinner frame material an just tack in a strip around the inside of the frame to attach the ply base as it’s such a simpler, cleaner, and better solution than using a notch and heavy materials that are way overkill for what’s needed for the project. A strip added later also give you flexibility if you need to sit the ply at a different height, with the notch you are stuck at the depth the notch is cut. This is why I design by looking for the simplest cleanest solutions over the fancy as the fancy usually lead you into many dark corners and troubles and in this case it’s not see at all in the finished piece and makes the finished piece heavier than it needs to be,

 

good luck.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

3 hours ago, cteno4 said:

By putting the notch into your sides you have locked yourself into putting simple rabbet joints onto your corners to deal with the notch. Using a fancier joint with the notch will be really difficult.
 

there is a reason why to use thinner frame material an just tack in a strip around the inside of the frame to attach the ply base as it’s such a simpler, cleaner, and better solution than using a notch and heavy materials that are way overkill for what’s needed for the project.

 

good luck.

 

jeff

You're right again. While I want to cut a notch into the sides, now that I own a circular saw, perhaps I shall simply cut the ends of each rail at a 45 degree angle and screw the sides together. That may save me a lot of difficulty.   

And while you're right that the heaviness of my materials for this might be an overkill, I did always mean for this layout and table to be extremely unique in more ways than one. I want it to stand out by the table being "luxurious" if somewhat extravagant, in this sturdiness of its design. I'll want it be worthy of wearing a nameplate of the layout on its fascia when it's done. 

Heck, I was crazy enough to wait and save and plan for years just to come and move here to Japan practically permanently. We'll see if I'm stubborn enough to build this to my own design to the letter.  

Edited October 20, 2023 by SL58654号

[Grant_T]

16 hours ago, cteno4 said:

A circular saw is also one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment you can use.

 

They scare the hell out of me. 😄

[cteno4]

The luxuriousness of the thick wood is not seen with your notch in there. From the top it looks like half it’s thickness, only place you see it would be your leg inset but that could be padded out in the corners with a small second piece of wood in the corners and give you a better way of securing your legs (ie secure a little L to the end of your legs and then screw that into the frame or use bolts and threaded inserts in the frame). Wood is so bloody expensive and good wood really hard to find, it’s usually better to engineer things out with thinner wood to save on time and money and in this situation it avoids cutting that notch which will be difficult to cut clean with a circular saw. Also lighter and give flexibility in engineering and mixing wood when needed, like using 7ply birch in hidden places that need strength. Starting out as well in woodworking you have more of a chance of screwing up a piece of wood so better it’s cheaper to replace! Cutting thicker woods also just gets more difficult to get clean square cuts. Fine woodworking is like 45% planning, 50% setup and 5% actually cutting and screwing! 
 

Yes 45 is a solution if you cut the notch in. But getting a clean 45 is difficult with a circular saw and aligning corners carefully and securely while securing is a lot harder than with butt or rabbet joints. Also the joint is not as strong using screws or pegs as the one side has a lot less thickness going thru the board to purchase to so you need to be careful in screw placement and depth. Luckily your thicker boards will help this, Practice both cutting and joining your 45s. It’s easy for the two 45s to want to slip past each other out of alignment as you secure them so being clamped down well really helps prevent this. Take your time on these joint attachments to get them as clean as possible. I tend to avoid 45 joints as the corner is where stuff usually gets banged and it’s the most delicate part of the finished joints. For some reason as well they just don’t aesthetically look good to me in many situations. And just dam hard to get super clean fits and less forgiving to the eye more noticeable if they are a tad off.

 

With the hand saw (or even careful set up of the circular saw for the cross cut) and chisel you could probably make some pretty decent rabbet joints with some practice. I’d take a piece of your wood and try a whack at both doings and secure them and even fill and sand then and finish them as a test to see which works best with your hands and result feels like to your eye. This bit of experiment will give you a very good feel of the whole process and what the results will look like and if you screw up on a step not a huge loss/disaster and really is the best way to learn this stuff.

 

Circular Saw 101 
With the circular saw you will need a big and thick speed square (like 12”) to align your saw with for your cross cuts. The reasons to get a thick one is that most more inexpensive circular saws have a folded metal bottom fence and the bottom edge of the fence is curved so it won’t sit cleanly up against a thin square and tend to ride up onto the square with any wobbles of the saw. A thicker square catches the upper flat parts of the saw base. Larger is also better as more contact area between square and saw fence.  Plastic ones are ok as well as usually thicker than metal. Clamp the speed square down so you can have Both hands on the saw to keep it as flat and level as possible and make as smooth a cut as possible, one handed cutting tends to have the saw wobble more on you and then rougher cuts. Clamping the wood down with 2 pieces of sacrificial wood the same thickness as your piece on either side of it helps a lot. This does two things, one it will help splintering of your edges from the saw blade and two it gives a wider surface for the saw to run on and this will give you a much cleaner and precise cut. Also cutting your boards down close to size (ie a cm or so extra on each end) helps to get a cleaner cut on you good size as the waste does not want to pull off any last bits. 
 

Also with the blade set to a 45 you can’t see where the blade will be cutting so you have to figure out the distance off your desired cut line you need to set the square. You do this by clamping your square down to a scrap piece of wood and making a cut. You can then measure the exact distance for your cut edge back to the square edge. This is the offset to set the square to from your desired cut point. At 90 cuts many saws have this offset on ther fence an even set amount, but usually not perfect and not set for saw set to 45. Do it a few times on some scrap wood to verify your square offset. I actually have this written on a piece of tape on my saw for the offset at 90 and 45 for reference.

 

Cut your notch first then do the 45 cuts as your ends on the 45 are delicate and you don’t want to ding them up while manipulating to cut the notch and 45 ends hard to measure on.

 

Check the blade 45 setting carefully with the square, don’t rely on the saw gauge or stops. Test two 45 cuts to join up in a perfect 90. It may take a few tries readjusting the blade a tiny bit to get it perfect. I don’t really trust adjustable stops on cheaper circular saws as they can just tweak in many ways too much to be reliable. I have a big skil circular saw with a cast aluminum base that I can rust the sets on, but small portable ryobis I verify all the time as they can even loosen some with setting down.
 

Do be gentle setting the saw down as folded metal bases are prone to bending If banged hard. Also when you first open your saw box up put a straight edge on your bottom fence to make sure it’s nice and flat. A big complaint folks have is opening the box to a new circular saw with a slightly curved or bent bottom fence. With that you just can’t make very precise cuts at all, so best to exchange. Some models it’s just most are a tad off on most of the saws and others just a bad one now and then.

 

Test the blade that comes with the saw on some waste ends of your wood (different blades can give you different results on different woods). Saws usually don’t supply a decent blade and they tend to be cheap general purpose blades and your critical cuts are cross cuts. Spending $20-30 on a good carbide cross cut blade can make a world of difference with splintering from the cut and the smoothness of the cut. The smoother the cut the tighter and neater the joint. Also sharp cutting blade will just saw better overall for a better cut and control. A few times I’ve been dumb and struggled with circular saw cutting on a project with a duller or wrong blade (usually too lazy to got to the store) and when I did replace the blade I totally kicked myself!

 

You can also use the circular saw to rip your plywood down to size. Just use strips of like 1x2 lumber clamped to the ply to act as a guide to make a nice straight cut. You can buy fancy metal clamp guides to do this, but for a few cuts a good straight piece of lumber works. Investing in some clamps is the best thing for doing this work with a circular saw and in all your later assembly. Usually bar clamps are the handiest with a mix of quick squeeze bar clamps (one handed, but not as tight of grip) and tighter twist bar clamps (tighter squeeze but require 2 hands to set). Few C clams and wood ship clamps always helps. You can never have enough clamps as you find claiming to clamping situations you end up with a whole host of permutations depending on setup. But getting the clean, pretty cuts you want clamping carefully and take your time on it (usually takes a lot of time to clamp up and just few seconds to actually do the cut) to get best cut possible.

 

if you know anyone with experience using a circular saw a lot, take them to lunch and have them spend 20 minutes going over using it. Also watch some youtubes to see the donts that can give binding, kickbacks, splintering, or gouges. They are a powerful little machines, but can do good work with practice and good setup. The setup can be very tedious for some cuts like your notch, but when done right it can give nice cuts like you would get on a table saw as well be must safer with the circular saw and in better control of the saw.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

2 hours ago, Grant_T said:

 

They scare the hell out of me. 😄

Yes I’ve been using them for 50 years and it’s probably the tool I give the greatest care with. Very handy and pretty versatile but you basically have a very fast spinning nasty blade in your hand. I worked home construction one summer while a kid and learned big time how to use them, but witnessed the contractor himself in a hurry lock the blade guard back for an end cut and then manage to take a gouge out the front of his thigh on a kickback (both dangerous cut and him in a bad position to both control the saw and be near the blade)! Trip to the ER and 30 so stitches and a few weeks of him just bossing limping around and not working. BIG lesson that if you have to lock the blade guard for a cut it means you should not be doing the cut with the circular saw—stop and get the right tool or reposition the work. Also generally why I try to warn budding woodworkers from them until they have some experience, a dangerous first power saw.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

I proceeded to practice on some scrap wood which was cut off from the main wood from which my table will be built. Guiding it steadily during longitudinal cuts is tricky, but can be done with a sure hand and secure guide. Fortunately no harm done during today while getting a feel for using my saw. 
You're quite right though that the vast majority of woodworking is planning and preparation while 5% is the actual cutting and assembling. I've done no real work yet. 

[cteno4]

The real work is actually in the planning and setup. If you have done that well the actual action many times is not all that big of a deal. Planning is a lot of which tool and setup will make the eventual action as boring but as precise, easy, and safe as possible! 
 

See if you can find some cheaper grade wood the same thickness as yours (if close just shim with some strips of scrap cardboard) and uses these on either side of your wood to make sure you have a big area for the saw to rest on, that will help getting the most even cut line. Having some sort of work bench you can clamp down to helps a lot. For your edge cut up if you can clamp the board along the edge of a workbench with your cut edge flush with the bench you can then use the bench surface to rest the big side of the saw on. 
 

you can make a temp bench edge if you can find a heavy plank and attach a like piece of 1x6 to one face to make a plank with an L cross section. The clamp or screw this temporary to something to hold it firm and then use it as your base to clamp your work and guides too.
 

it’s all about planing your cut setup so that you have the big side of the saw (ie over the motor) supported well and you are in a good position to move the saw smoothly. You want to cut in one smooth motion as when you slow or stop (worst) you will end up rotating and wobbling the saw some. Of course this is harder to do the longer the cut, so longer cuts require a lot more setup and thought as to where you stand in relation to the cut. You have to be careful to think about you as it’s easy to get focused on the cut and guide placement, clamping, etc and forget about your body in the equation. I’ve seen folks contort themselves to do cuts (in unsafe ways like the contractor story above) when if they took a couple of minutes to reposition the work and think through their body access to the cut it would go so much better and safer. 
 

you learn this flowing motion you need to move a circular saw down a line and even smoothly against a guide. Same goes with cross cuts doing the shirt cut against a square on a thinner cross section requires a shorter but mor stiff motion as it’s easy to twist the saw with only a little bit of the blade in the wood on a crosscut. It’s a practice thing. Longer cuts require you to try to situate yourself so you can get as long a smooth cut as possible and if you need to move you need to plan where and how you will move and practice it first just holding the saw to see if the physics works with you and the saw. I know this sounds dumb but it’s the cornerstone to getting precise cuts with a circular saw like this and also being as safe as possible. Circular saws are mostly used for rougher construction use where the cuts don’t have to be ultra, pretty. For pretty stuff they use a chop saw and table saw on a job site. There are systems to use a circular saw for fine woodworking instead of a table saw, but they are very expensive and require a good sized specialized table for the fancy guide system and it’s also a completely new way to learn how to work (I mean pretty brain twisting).

 

also if you have a corded saw always think thru where the cord is and will be going as that’s a common thing of the cord catching on something in the middle of a cut and jerking the saw and ruining the cut.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

The setup and preparation for building the layout table made somewhat good strides this week. While looking through my local Hard Off, scouting for cheap power tools to help me get the job done on a budget, and I found this power sander, hoping it'll make my table very finely smoothed at the end of the building process. Also, the chisel set that my dear mother kindly gifted me arrived, and they certainly look pretty. I'm going to get some mileage out of them (and use them wisely!) just as I have my new saw.

Also, while browsing in my favorite old bookstore, I found this good condition copy of a SL photography book by Naotaka Hirota.
Wonderful book to look through longingly. 

 

[cteno4]

That’s a handy sander to have, just go lightly with it and mind the edges as it can sort of end up curving your flat surface near the edges. If you want the really nice finish then just use the electric sander up to about 120-150 grit and get your major bumps like knots and joints knocked down flat. But again mind the edges to not curve them. Keep control of the sander with 2 hands to keep even strokes and it not pushing off the edges. This is a bigger vibrating sander and has some mass so you don’t want to push down and actually may need to lift it a tad to not scratch the wood.. After that hand block sand it and do it with care to do even stokes. It’s one of the few things that doing by hand can have an amazing results and doesn’t take long to learn, but can take some time to do.

 

cedar is a pretty soft wood so a few bad passes with a heavier grit sand paper with an electrical sander can take quite a bit off. I would not go heavier than 120 grit in cedar, experiment and see if it marks the grain up at all, may have to start with 150. Electric sanders can leave little swirly scratches in some woods that mess up the look of the grain even if you can’t see these scratches at a distance. One of the issues with your wood pieces is they have knots in them. This is an issue as the knots are usually much denser grain (ie harder) and also cross grain on your surface. This means the sander will tend to bite into the softer with grain wood around it than the knot. This can make it difficult to totally smooth out knots and can actually make them more pronounced by taking away softer wood surrounding them. Again experiment and practice. Planes have a similar problem on knots and it’s very difficult to use a plane to get knots smooth.

 

again as always experiment first to find the groove, then practice to nail it down before starting on the actual project.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

@cteno4 As always, thanks for your advice and well wishes! Luckily, I can find sandpaper of all grits cheaply at the corner shop down the street. 
It's a beautiful Saturday here, and I plan to get a little practice out of both tools (following a weekend pancake breakfast I treated myself to!).
Now, all I think I need is a drill for making dowel holes and other joining points, and I'm there! 

[SL58654号]

Now the fun is starting to begin! 😄
I made a bit of a practice run with both my chisels and power sander and they all work a treat! The power sander I'm especially glad was not defective though I bought it cheap!
The chisels required a steady hand and a bit of muscle, for sure, but it felt fun to maneuver them and really get a feel for using them with the wood for the first time! I feel it'll be fun and satisfying to use them for my table joints already! It's good exercise, too!
I'm slowly building up a small home workshop, just for this layout, and possibly successive layouts or other future woodworking projects!

So the afternoon on my balcony was spent testing them and I got a tangible result. Using a practice piece I shaped then sanded it to look like the inside of the rails in which the layout board will rest. Needs a bit more work with the chisel, but that's no problem, cause the learning I'm getting out of them is already enjoyable. I can picture the Sakuragi no Yu Sen reaching completion already...
Speaking of enjoyable, additionally today I went to an antique book fair and I cheaply obtained another delightful photo book form when steam was at its zenith in Japan. Contains wonderful amounts of both color and black and white photos of great Japanese steam action.

Edited October 28, 2023 by SL58654号

[cteno4]

Good start! Keep on practicing it’s the key to success on doing nice woodworking. 
 

on the chisels you should not need a lot of muscle, usually means you are being too aggressive. You can get a little chisel hammer which is a little round wooden pin you lightly tap on the end of the chisel. Again it’s not about hard force just applying little taps to inch the chisel through. Look about YouTube as tons of videos in the art of using a wood chisel. When done right it’s a joy to do as you can really feel the movement of the wood when being cut.

 

also get yourself a honing stone and a little chisel sharpening guide if you plan on doing a lot of this with the chisels. Chisels actually loose their nice razor sharp edge fast even on soft wood. Having a nice clean edge is the secret to clean and easier wood chiseling. The guide is just a little thing you screw down on the chisel and it holds the chisel at the right angle to hone the blade evenly. Usually has 2 little wheels to help with this. Well worth the cost as on a good set of chisels you can ruin them fast by not honing evenly on the edges and on cheaper chisels it is really necessary to sharpen them as they will dull faster. Again tons of YouTube videos on honing chisels! If you ever take a Japanese woodworking course the first day or two will be jsut sharpening your tools before doing any woodworking.

 

Keep going!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

16 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Good start! Keep on practicing it’s the key to success on doing nice woodworking. 
 

on the chisels you should not need a lot of muscle, usually means you are being too aggressive. You can get a little chisel hammer which is a little round wooden pin you lightly tap on the end of the chisel. Again it’s not about hard force just applying little taps to inch the chisel through. Look about YouTube as tons of videos in the art of using a wood chisel. When done right it’s a joy to do as you can really feel the movement of the wood when being cut.

 

also get yourself a honing stone and a little chisel sharpening guide if you plan on doing a lot of this with the chisels. Chisels actually loose their nice razor sharp edge fast even on soft wood. Having a nice clean edge is the secret to clean and easier wood chiseling. The guide is just a little thing you screw down on the chisel and it holds the chisel at the right angle to hone the blade evenly. Usually has 2 little wheels to help with this. Well worth the cost as on a good set of chisels you can ruin them fast by not honing evenly on the edges and on cheaper chisels it is really necessary to sharpen them as they will dull faster. Again tons of YouTube videos on honing chisels! If you ever take a Japanese woodworking course the first day or two will be jsut sharpening your tools before doing any woodworking.

 

Keep going!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

Thanks! Your words of encouragement made my day this morning! 😄
It's really starting to become enjoyable. While my amount of time is unlimited with this project, I feel as excited as ever to proceed with the carpentry as I see fit.

[cteno4]

Glad you are being bitten by the woodworking bug! It’s a very fun and rewarding hobby. Like I keep repeating it’s one that takes a bit of time to practice at but it’s one of those hobbies that once you get rolling you can keep building on your skills and experience. There is something very nice and monkey brain about working with wood and the feel of it. Very handy hobby to have as it comes in very useful all over the place! Also great as it gets your mind thinking about how stuff goes together spatially and structurally in a very hands on way that you don’t get with 3D cad building.

 

keep at it and keep practicing and experimenting at each step and new tool or task, it pays off to not have that big bummer screw up that can really douse the flame for some. Small screwups on tests are fine as you learn a lot and can easily experiment fast to see exactly why it went wrong and how to correct it which, in itself, can be a very rewarding loop.
 

it’s funny with all the decades I have into woodworking I still do little test cuts all the time to just verify things check adjustments, blade, wood, etc are all set right even though 99% of the time I could probably totally shoot from the hip, but the small bit of time it takes just makes me refine adjustments and thinking and rarely have an oh @#$& moment and I think a more consistent and better woodworker.

 

keep searching YouTube it really is a treasure trove for woodworking techniques and tools (both how to use them and which ones to buy). It’s fortunate that folks love the hobby so will take the time to show folks how to do things. Also keep your antennae up for any local woodworkers as you will find most love to teach and may have a shop or specific tools you may use that you can have now. Ask around if their are any woodshops at schools in the area as it use to be here you could take adult open shop classes at night to use the shop for your projects (insurance has killed this in the us first for the night adult classes then the kids classes). Some of our senior centers also have woodshops and may let a younger guy in for maybe a trade cleaning up or something. We have a few commercial rental woodshops, but they have waned as the cost to keep equipment up has just gotten too much and now they only do specific woodworking classes and not open shop rental.

 

Enjoy!

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

Today, after having gotten my feet wet with the "test" sample of wood with my power saw and chisels, I dove in and hopped into making the major cuts in all the four sides of the main table in which the board will sit. I'm so glad to have gotten probably the most laborious 😫 and dangerous part of the process (as far as I can foresee) out of the way in one afternoon! No harm done! 
Now, on another spare lazy afternoon I'll get to chiseling out the "X" segments, and today I certainly generated and cleaned up a lot of sawdust!
Next lies ahead the gentler-paced and more skill-necessitating dovetailing to join the four sides together! 

Also, any advice for filling in naturally-occurring cracks in wood?
I don't want anything sullying my smooth surface when it comes time to finish it, sand and lacquer it. 

[cteno4]

Good work, cuts look good. Luckily the notch is all hidden so does not have to be perfect to the eye or heavily sanded and filled.

 

Stuff to fill holes and cracks is wood putty. It’s a putty mix you buy at the hardware or lumber store and you can get it in various wood colors to help match your wood. Of course cedar has many colors in it from light to dark so that van can a challenge unless you get a few colors to try and match the color of the bit you are filling. Some like to leave the cracks in the wood and fill with lacquer or if too big just leave open if you want the more “natural” wood look. You just use a flexible spackle knife to apply the putty, pushing it into the crack well and leave a tiny extra above the wood surface to sand off (this way you get a very smooth surface once sanded down). Don’t want a ton extra just flush with surface. Usually takes a second touch up after first round of putty and sanding. Best to hand block sand off excess as with a soft wood like cedar it’s easy to dig into the wood around a putty bump and a sanding block helps prevent that. 

 

also test your putty with your lacquer to see it’s eventual color as it may change color differently than the wood does once lacquer is applied. Usually just wetting the wood with a wet finger gives you a good idea of colors once finish is applied but it’s not perfect! 
 

also the putty uses very quick evaporating solvents so you don’t have a long time to apply, only a minute or so once on the knife and applying. More you work it the faster it hardens. So only put a little on the knife at a time and put the lid back on the putty can right away (don’t have to bang it on just gently push so sealed but openable with finger nail) once you get some on your knife. Some now come in squeeze tubes which help with the container of putty not getting dried out as much. Usually want to wait an hour or so before sanding to make sure it’s fully hardened.

 

again practice some and experiment before you use it on your final piece. I would see in your test scraps if you have two bits with similar cracks try sanding one down and lacquering and the other use fill putty, sand, and lacquer to see the results and what you like the most. Sometimes a light stain before lacquering can help even out coloring and bring out grain and contrast some. This is a real art and you just have to experiment to see what works well for you and gives the result you want. Wood dyes are also used a lot with lacquer to bring in color. These are pigments in water or alcohol solvent. You apply it in layers and each successive application the color gets richer. Finishing is the final art in woodworking and really can make a huge difference to the eye. Some finishes can either hide joints more or hilight than as desired. Some tone down heavy wood grains, others can help bring out rich wood grains in woods where the grain is not as visible usually.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

45 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Good work, cuts look good. Luckily the notch is all hidden so does not have to be perfect to the eye or heavily sanded and filled.

 

Stuff to fill holes and cracks is wood putty. It’s a putty mix you buy at the hardware or lumber store and you can get it in various wood colors to help match your wood. Of course cedar has many colors in it from light to dark so that van can a challenge unless you get a few colors to try and match the color of the bit you are filling. Some like to leave the cracks in the wood and fill with lacquer or if too big just leave open if you want the more “natural” wood look. You just use a flexible spackle knife to apply the putty, pushing it into the crack well and leave a tiny extra above the wood surface to sand off (this way you get a very smooth surface once sanded down). Don’t want a ton extra just flush with surface. Usually takes a second touch up after first round of putty and sanding. Best to hand block sand off excess as with a soft wood like cedar it’s easy to dig into the wood around a putty bump and a sanding block helps prevent that. 

 

also test your putty with your lacquer to see it’s eventual color as it may change color differently than the wood does once lacquer is applied. Usually just wetting the wood with a wet finger gives you a good idea of colors once finish is applied but it’s not perfect! 
 

also the putty uses very quick evaporating solvents so you don’t have a long time to apply, only a minute or so once on the knife and applying. More you work it the faster it hardens. So only put a little on the knife at a time and put the lid back on the putty can right away (don’t have to bang it on just gently push so sealed but openable with finger nail) once you get some on your knife. Some now come in squeeze tubes which help with the container of putty not getting dried out as much. Usually want to wait an hour or so before sanding to make sure it’s fully hardened.

 

again practice some and experiment before you use it on your final piece. I would see in your test scraps if you have two bits with similar cracks try sanding one down and lacquering and the other use fill putty, sand, and lacquer to see the results and what you like the most. Sometimes a light stain before lacquering can help even out coloring and bring out grain and contrast some. This is a real art and you just have to experiment to see what works well for you and gives the result you want. Wood dyes are also used a lot with lacquer to bring in color. These are pigments in water or alcohol solvent. You apply it in layers and each successive application the color gets richer. Finishing is the final art in woodworking and really can make a huge difference to the eye. Some finishes can either hide joints more or hilight than as desired. Some tone down heavy wood grains, others can help bring out rich wood grains in woods where the grain is not as visible usually.

 

jeff

Thanks. You really are being my personal coach during this great experience! 
It's becoming more fun to use any and all spare time I have lying around my apartment to get this layout done! I think I'll be laying the track down for the first time at the beginning of November! 
It's a good thing I've gained more spare scrap wood lying around that was donated to me by a friend. Some of it is in good enough condition I may use it to enhance upon my original design. 

[cteno4]

You are most welcome! Like I mentioned most woodworkers love passing on the craft to others. I had many great woodworking mentors across my life. My father was the first that let me start using tools as soon as I could pick them up and was always encouraging. It’s one of those old hand crafts that is wonderfully physical.

 

scraps are great for trying out ideas and experimenting on. Also to test finishes on.

 

keep at it! Glad you are enjoying the experience.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

Next comes a drill I'll buy probably from Hard Off for cheap to make the dowel holes in which the legs will be removable from the table.

[cteno4]

Go for a rechargeable if you can. While plug-in has a lot of power (and probably be dirt cheap) a cord on a drill can easily get your vertical off if it gets tugged (you can plan around this but always an issue) and just a very handy tool around the house to have cordless. Don’t need a huge battery, smaller one is nicer as easier to wield. You rarely do a ton of drilling so usually takes while to discharge a battery with a drill compared to a saw or sander that use a lot of continuous power. Even a 12v one will have good torque but 18v is preferable. Also look to see if any other hand power tools you may want in the future to plan on the brand/system you pick up so you can eventually interchange batteries.

 

jeff

[SL58654号]

@cteno4 I may go for a plug-in since I am building this table on a budget but I have an extension cord. Just depends on what I find cheaply in the "junk" section of Hard Off. Based on my experience with the secondhand power sander, it operated perfectly fine. 
For now, I've put away the layout on my coffee table (where I've shown off my recent locomotive acquisitions) to tidy up, and now it won't be until the table is ready to support the layout that I'll start laying tracks from my collection and start fixing them to the foam board with caulk. It'll help motivate me to get this done! 

[cteno4]

Corded is fine, probably dirt cheap since cordless have taken over! Just have to mind the cord does not waver your drilling.

 

good thing about a drill is if it turns it’s fine and will do the job.

 

now the bad news, drills depend on their bits like saws their blades. Doing dowel holes you want clean holes, so you need nice sharp drill bits to do this task. If you are drilling 12mm or smaller then a regular twist bit will work fine. For cleanest hole you want a wood Brad point bit. These have a tiny sharp Brad point in the middle that let’s you set the bit with a bit of pressure before starting to drill to the tip won’t wander the way reagulsr cone tipped bits can easily. They also have the cutting edge angled up to the outer edge from the center and raised outer edges so that the cut the edge of the hole very cleanly, in contrast a regular cone bit usually ends up ripping a bit of the edge on the surface around the edge of the hole and you don’t want that for your clean looks.

 

so for 12mm and under (I wouldn’t get into dowels for this project over 12mm) I would look for the appropriate sized Brad point drill bit. You can get small sets cheaper, but if on a tight budget you can find them individually (usually better quality ones and a bit more expensive). A cheap set is great for general woodworking, but for your dowel holes I would say it may be worth purchasing one good quality but if appropriate size to get the cleanest hole face.

 

https://www.amazon.com/TOOLS-Point-Storage-Carpenters-Quality/dp/B095L2MV1L/ref=sr_1_6?crid=C9O2PYW97EM1&keywords=brad%2Bpoint%2Bdrill%2Bbit%2Bset&qid=1698854095&sprefix=Brad%2Bpo%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-6&th=1

 

you may need to look at a specialty store to get individual bits. 
 

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/power-tool-accessories/drill-bits/43255-hss-lipped-metric-brad-point-drills?item=07J1607

 

but if you come across an inexpensive set you can always try them on your wood and see if they make clean enough holes for your needs.

 

big trick to using dowels is to get the right sized dowels that are just snug fit for your drilled holes. Again something you have to experiment with and test your wood. If the dowels are too snug the will split your wood, too loose and not a great hold, although with glue in there if you let it set up clamped down it can work. Trying to sand down dowels is hard to get them even. You can put a piece of dowel in the drill bit and turn on the drill and apply sand paper on a block to try to reduce the diameter, but not always perfect. You also need to drive your holes very straight for dowels, no drifting of the angle as it ends up making the hole larger and ugly surface hole bigger than the dowel. Those drill guides don’t work well for this application as your holes are right at the corner edges and the bases tend not to have enough support on the corner. They are also bulky to use in this situation and with not good support even worse, it’s very easy to screw up with them. You also need to clamp your corner down perfectly and very strongly to drill the hole and then drive the dowel while clamped and best to let the glue dry before unclamping. It’s some work to get very clean looking dowel and hole seams that look clean and tight. Again something you have to experiment and practice on if you want it looking super clean and nice.

 

with running the risk of splitting your wood with dowels (you have to be very careful when you drive them as well) and drilling tight holes, I would suggest you cheat here and use countersunk screws to hold things. The  you just plug the top of the screw holes with plugs of what ever wood you choose (you can get a plug cutter bit for your drill for a few bucks). You either use the same color wood so the plug can almost disappear or use a contrasting wood color and end grain to look like a dowel used. This is a super standard wood working joint method and the screw will really suck your joint together as well. No real splitting issues to deal with or worries of drifting holes. Counter sink bit and plug bit set like $20 or less. This way you are pretty much assured of very clean looking plug/hole seams and have your choice of if you want hidden or contrasting fake dowels. Again experiment on scrap and see which you like visually with your finish.

 

you can see woodworking like this is a bit of back and forth testing to determine final look and fit. As you build experience you can of course skip some of these having done it in the past and knowing the fit and finish that will come, but even then I’m always stopping and testing how it might look another way than I had originally thought and sometimes really surprise myself going a different direction than my original mental plans.

 

if you decide to try the dowel route then make sure to do a few practice dowel joints as they are tricky to get nice and clean. I know you have said you want really nice clean joints and good to see if what you can produce will give you what you want. If there are gaps around the dowel and hole you can fill with wood putty, but that can at times give even more contrast to the missing areas from drilling wiggle and make it look even worse drawing the eye to it. With plug and screw you dont have these potential issues as the counter sunk hoke is only like 1cm deep so no wander and plugs are cut to fit just right and usually never any gaps. If you match the grain and color of wood by cutting the plug from a very similar looking piece of scrap wood, the plugs almost disappear unless you look very close.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

 

[SL58654号]

21 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Corded is fine, probably dirt cheap since cordless have taken over! Just have to mind the cord does not waver your drilling.

 

good thing about a drill is if it turns it’s fine and will do the job.

 

now the bad news, drills depend on their bits like saws their blades. Doing dowel holes you want clean holes, so you need nice sharp drill bits to do this task. If you are drilling 12mm or smaller then a regular twist bit will work fine. For cleanest hole you want a wood Brad point bit. These have a tiny sharp Brad point in the middle that let’s you set the bit with a bit of pressure before starting to drill to the tip won’t wander the way reagulsr cone tipped bits can easily. They also have the cutting edge angled up to the outer edge from the center and raised outer edges so that the cut the edge of the hole very cleanly, in contrast a regular cone bit usually ends up ripping a bit of the edge on the surface around the edge of the hole and you don’t want that for your clean looks.

 

so for 12mm and under (I wouldn’t get into dowels for this project over 12mm) I would look for the appropriate sized Brad point drill bit. You can get small sets cheaper, but if on a tight budget you can find them individually (usually better quality ones and a bit more expensive). A cheap set is great for general woodworking, but for your dowel holes I would say it may be worth purchasing one good quality but if appropriate size to get the cleanest hole face.

 

https://www.amazon.com/TOOLS-Point-Storage-Carpenters-Quality/dp/B095L2MV1L/ref=sr_1_6?crid=C9O2PYW97EM1&keywords=brad%2Bpoint%2Bdrill%2Bbit%2Bset&qid=1698854095&sprefix=Brad%2Bpo%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-6&th=1

 

you may need to look at a specialty store to get individual bits. 
 

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/power-tool-accessories/drill-bits/43255-hss-lipped-metric-brad-point-drills?item=07J1607

 

but if you come across an inexpensive set you can always try them on your wood and see if they make clean enough holes for your needs.

 

big trick to using dowels is to get the right sized dowels that are just snug fit for your drilled holes. Again something you have to experiment with and test your wood. If the dowels are too snug the will split your wood, too loose and not a great hold, although with glue in there if you let it set up clamped down it can work. Trying to sand down dowels is hard to get them even. You can put a piece of dowel in the drill bit and turn on the drill and apply sand paper on a block to try to reduce the diameter, but not always perfect. You also need to drive your holes very straight for dowels, no drifting of the angle as it ends up making the hole larger and ugly surface hole bigger than the dowel. Those drill guides don’t work well for this application as your holes are right at the corner edges and the bases tend not to have enough support on the corner. They are also bulky to use in this situation and with not good support even worse, it’s very easy to screw up with them. You also need to clamp your corner down perfectly and very strongly to drill the hole and then drive the dowel while clamped and best to let the glue dry before unclamping. It’s some work to get very clean looking dowel and hole seams that look clean and tight. Again something you have to experiment and practice on if you want it looking super clean and nice.

 

with running the risk of splitting your wood with dowels (you have to be very careful when you drive them as well) and drilling tight holes, I would suggest you cheat here and use countersunk screws to hold things. The  you just plug the top of the screw holes with plugs of what ever wood you choose (you can get a plug cutter bit for your drill for a few bucks). You either use the same color wood so the plug can almost disappear or use a contrasting wood color and end grain to look like a dowel used. This is a super standard wood working joint method and the screw will really suck your joint together as well. No real splitting issues to deal with or worries of drifting holes. Counter sink bit and plug bit set like $20 or less. This way you are pretty much assured of very clean looking plug/hole seams and have your choice of if you want hidden or contrasting fake dowels. Again experiment on scrap and see which you like visually with your finish.

 

you can see woodworking like this is a bit of back and forth testing to determine final look and fit. As you build experience you can of course skip some of these having done it in the past and knowing the fit and finish that will come, but even then I’m always stopping and testing how it might look another way than I had originally thought and sometimes really surprise myself going a different direction than my original mental plans.

 

if you decide to try the dowel route then make sure to do a few practice dowel joints as they are tricky to get nice and clean. I know you have said you want really nice clean joints and good to see if what you can produce will give you what you want. If there are gaps around the dowel and hole you can fill with wood putty, but that can at times give even more contrast to the missing areas from drilling wiggle and make it look even worse drawing the eye to it. With plug and screw you dont have these potential issues as the counter sunk hoke is only like 1cm deep so no wander and plugs are cut to fit just right and usually never any gaps. If you match the grain and color of wood by cutting the plug from a very similar looking piece of scrap wood, the plugs almost disappear unless you look very close.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

 

Say no more. Gosh, I love Hard Off. Got this fine drill set for just 990 yen! Getting my workshop tools has been much cheaper than I thought!
The drill bits themselves I'll scout for at my local hardware store and compare the dowels themselves to.