The two-level design I’ve come up with here is relatively easy to build and offers a wide range of customization options. The dividers are made from a combination of 1/2″- and 3/4″-thick solid walnut and mounted on a 1/4″-thick Baltic birch plywood base. But you can choose just about any species of wood, mix and match multiple species or even use Baltic birch plywood for all the parts, if you like.

Cutting the Parts

Look at the the Drawings and Material List to familiarize yourself with the knife block’s design and pieces. Start construction by ripping enough 2-1/4″-wide stock to make the bottom inside and outside dividers.

Then rip 1-3/8″-wide pieces for the top dividers and handle rest. Crosscut the bottom dividers, top dividers and handle rest parts 1/4″ longer than necessary for now.

Shaping the Dividers and Rest

Face-glue three pairs of bottom inside dividers together, and do the same for the two handle rest parts. Carefully align their edges and ends flush. When the glue dries, unclamp and crosscut the parts to final length.

Now grab your compass to lay out a 1-5/16″ radius on the sides of the top dividers and a 3-3/4″ radius on the sides of the bottom dividers. Then, use a band saw or jigsaw to cut just outside the layout line on each divider.

I clamped the top dividers into a single group and did the same for the bottom dividers so I could sand their curves to the layout lines all at once. Next, use a hand plane, file or sanding block to shape a slight radius on the top of the handle rest. When that’s done, sand all the knife block parts to 180-grit.

Assembling the Knife Block

Cut the plywood base to size as well as seven spacers for the top and bottom dividers from 1/4″-thick scrap. Place the bottom dividers upside down and insert spacers between them, aligning the back ends of all pieces. The spacers are narrower than the dividers to prevent them from contacting the base when the dividers are installed.

Clamp the dividers and spacers together. Apply a thin layer of glue to the bottom edges of the dividers only. Then flip the divider-and-spacer assembly over and clamp it to the base.

When that glue-up dries, remove the clamps and spacers. Repeat the assembly process to install the top dividers. Glue and mount the handle rest to the base where it best suits the handles of your knives.

Finally, lightly sand all surfaces with 220-grit paper and apply a wipe-on poly finish to all surfaces. It will be foodsafe once the finish completely cures.

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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– Bruce Kieffer
Edina, Minnesota

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– Howard Hirsch
Downingtown, Pennsylvania

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Preparing a Long Panel

There are only four parts on this stand’s Material List, so its modest lumber requirement provides a nice opportunity to try an exotic or figured wood you wouldn’t normally choose. I settled on a piece of swirly grained bubinga. Its irregular pattern and reddish color reminds me of marble more than wood!

Whatever species you choose, rip and crosscut enough 3/4″-thick stock to glue up a panel measuring 16″ wide by 48″ long. Joint and plane the boards carefully to minimize the glue seams as much as possible, then glue and clamp them up. When the joints dry and the panel comes out of the clamps, plane, scrape or sand any uneven glue seams flat, and sand the panel up to 120-grit.

The reason for beginning with a single panel is so you can harvest the individual workpieces from it to harmonize the grain pattern. Square up the ends of the panel. Then, starting from one end, mark an 8″ length for one side panel, a 16-1/2″-long piece next to it for the top panel and another 8″ piece after that for the other side panel. Crosscut the parts to rough size. What’s left of the panel is the shelf. Trim it to 15-1/2″ wide and 15″ long. Finish up this step by trimming the sides to 7-1/2″ long and the top to its final length of 16″.

Starting with Tails

There’s no shame in cutting through dovetails with a router and a dovetail jig, if you’d rather do that. But I like the ability to create narrower pins than my dovetail jig will allow and the freedom to space the pattern as I choose — two big advantages of cutting dovetails by hand.

If you like the look of the dovetail pattern shown on the facing page and in the Drawings, we’ll start by laying out the tails on the two side panels. Grab a sharp marking gauge and scribe a baseline for the tails all the way around the top ends of both side panels. Set these scribe lines about 1/32″ wider than the thickness of the top panel (this way, the tops of the tails will protrude slightly above the top panel when the joints are assembled).

Now lay out the center points of the pins every 2″ across the tops of the sides. This spacing will create a half socket on both ends of the side panels and six pin sockets in between. I did this by first clamping both side panels together with their ends and edges aligned and their “show” faces pointing outward. That way, I could mark the center points on one board and extend the layout lines across to the other board so the sockets would align perfectly.

The tops of the pin sockets are 1/4″ wide, so mark those next on both sides of each center line. I then set the angles of the tails to 1:6 (about 10 degrees). It makes the bottoms of the pin sockets 1/2″ wide. Use a fine-lead mechanical pencil and either a bevel gauge or a dovetail saddle square to draw the tail shapes down to the baselines on both side panels. Unclamp the side panels and complete the tail layouts on their inner faces, too. Do yourself a favor right now, and mark the pin sockets with black Xs to avoid confusion later. These are the waste areas to remove.

You’re now ready to saw the tails down to the baselines with a dovetail saw, following your angled layout lines. Many will cut these freehand. But if you’re less than confident that you can saw squarely and accurately, there’s another option that makes the process very easy. A number of years ago, I tried out a clever and simple aluminum jig, designed by British woodworker David Barron, that guides the saw blade while making the tail and pin cuts. Rare-earth magnets hold the saw blade at the correct angle while you saw to minimize angle-cutting errors. You can learn more about it at Barron’s website, and on his YouTube videos.

To use the jig, position its angled face toward you and rest the portion of the jig below the magnet on the tail board’s top edge. Carefully align one or the other angled edge of the jig with a tail line, hold or clamp the jig securely and set the saw blade against the jig’s magnetic face. Then start the saw cut with a long, gentle stroke and proceed to cut down to the baseline. Repeat this for every tail layout line on both side panels.

Now remove the waste in the pin socket areas, marked with Xs. To do this, some woodworkers chop all the waste out with just a chisel. I prefer to saw the waste out with a fretsaw first, leaving just a bit of waste at the bottom of each pin socket. Then, I chop and pare the rest of the waste away with the blade registered at the baseline. I work carefully in from one face until about half the waste is removed. When I make these chopping cuts, I tip the handle of my chisel about a degree or two closer to me so I’m slightly undercutting the bottoms of the sockets. When half the waste is removed from all the sockets, I flip the panel over so I can remove the remaining waste by chopping in from the other face. Doing this prevents the chisel from chipping the bottom outer edges of the sockets.

When the sockets are cleaned out, make sure their baselines are flat through the thickness of the side panels. This will enable the pins to slide into them squarely when the joints are assembled. Check the baselines with the blade of a square extended through the sockets; it should rest evenly across them on the baselines. Pare away any remaining waste that prevents this from happening.

Carefully saw off the tiny half-pin socket waste from the back corners of the side panels and the longer front wastepiece. I did this at the band saw with each side workpiece registered against a rip fence and the blade cutting just to the waste side of the baseline.

Shaping the Pins

With the tails now cut to shape, rip the top panel to its final 14″ width. Clamp it to the edge of your bench with an end facing up, and lay the correct side panel over it on your benchtop.

Align the edges of both panels, and adjust the tail board carefully so its baseline is aligned with the inside face of the top panel. Clamp the tail board in place. Carefully transfer the angled tail pattern onto the end of the top panel to mark for the pins.

Use a sharp, thin-bladed marking or pocketknife to incise these lines into the top panel’s end grain. Then flip the top panel so its other end is up and repeat the pin-scribing process using the other tail board.

Grab your marking gauge, again set 1/32″ deeper than the thickness of the side panels, to scribe baselines across the faces and ends of the top panel. Then draw straight lines down from the knifed lines on the end grain to the baselines to complete the pin shapes. Mark the large tail socket waste areas with Xs.

Go ahead and saw straight down to the baselines to cut the angled faces of the pins. Again, my Barron jig helped me guide these cuts easily by flipping its orientation around for the pin cuts. Aim as accurately as you can to literally split these layout lines with the saw blade — it will help to minimize the amount of paring you’ll have to do next.

Saw or chop out the large waste pieces in the tail socket areas. Effectively, the process is the same as when cutting out the pin socket areas, but there’s just more waste to remove. Use wider chisels to help speed the process along, and work carefully when you’re chiseling up to the baselines to keep them straight and evenly aligned with one another.

Now, fit the corner joints together, one joint at a time. If you’ve cut carefully, the pins and tails should engage one another snugly, right from the start. If they don’t, you’ve got some paring to do to improve the fit.

The goal here is to pare away as little material as possible so the joints will close without creating gaps between the pins and tails. But, if you remove too little, the panels could crack when tapping the joints together. Pare only from the angled, inside faces of the pins, leaving the tails alone. Work slowly and carefully until the joints fit together.

Installing the Shelf

The dovetails are the hardest part of this project, so it’s downhill from here! Chuck a 3/8″ straight or spiral bit in your router table, and raise it to 1/4″ cutting height so we can plow a groove on the inside face of each side panel for the shelf’s stub tenons. Set and lock the router table’s fence 31-1/16″ away from the back of the bit. Identify the cutting limits of the bit by drawing a pair of long vertical lines on the router table fence to mark the bit’s position. This way, you’ll know where to begin and end these groove cuts accurately — they stop 3/4″ from the front ends of the side panels.

Mark the outside faces of the side panels so you can stop the groove cuts accurately. (We’ll be routing these panels with their bottom flat edges against the fence.) Go ahead and plow grooves, then square up their rounded ends with a chisel. When that’s done, cut a 3/8″-thick stub tenon on each end of the shelf. I did this step at the table saw with a wide dado blade buried partially in a sacrificial fence. Trim the front corners off the tenons, shortening their width to 15-1/4″.

Dry-assemble the sides, top and shelf to make sure the dovetail joints close fully with the shelf in place and the sides are square to the top.

Adding Curves and Finishing Up

Disassemble the project so you can use double-sided tape to stick the side panels together in a stack with their inside faces touching. Mark one side panel for the large arch that forms the stand’s 2″-wide “feet” on the bottom edge. I made the apex of this arch 2″ and used a large French curve to create the shape. Draw the smaller curve from the front half pin socket down to the front edge of the side panel 4-1/4″ up from the front foot. Saw these curves into the ganged side panels at the band saw. Then sand the curves smooth and fair.

Give all the stand’s parts a final sanding before assembling them. Spread glue on just the dovetails, and clamp up the project with the shelf dry-fitted in place. This way, you can remove the shelf after the glue dries to prefinish it and the interior surfaces of the project next. My bubinga certainly needed no stain, so I simply sprayed it with three coats of aerosol satin lacquer. Once that was done, I flattened the protruding dovetail joints, glued the shelf into its grooves and sprayed the outer surfaces of the project.

Allow a week for the finish to cure, then this office machine stand is ready for use. And you’ll have another hand-cut dovetailed project under your belt!

Click Here to Download the Drawings and Materials List.

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It applies with a cloth and, after the excess is wiped off , dries on the surface in about 20 to 30 minutes. Bumblechutes recommends that the paste be reapplied every two to four weeks. It can be used as a stand-alone finish or to improve the moisture resistance of surfaces treated with Woodworker’s Oil.

Both products have a pleasant, lemony smell when first applied. Rockler sells Woodworker’s Oil in 8.45 oz bottles. All-In-One Wood Conditioner comes in 4 oz glass jars.

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The board acted like a giant shim to give the bit the lower cutting height this operation required. I positioned the through hole for the bit so that I could slide my router table fence up beside it. In the future, I can just drill more holes in this melamine board at whatever fence setting I need to use it again in the same way.

– Serge Duclos
Delson, Quebec

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Over the years, I have admired butterfly patches (also known as dovetails, dutchmen, bowties, or pewas) in turned pieces. Aside from becoming a primary visual feature, they add value to the piece by demonstrating the maker’s skill. Additionally, being able to turn a finished bowl with a crack in it extends your usable wood inventory.

Adapting to a Curved Surface

Butterfly inlays are common in flat work. Traditionally, the maker scribes around a hand-cut butterfly, drills or routs out most of the recess, then uses a chisel to work to the line for a perfect fit. But I wondered how to transfer that process to the curved surface of a bowl. I was doubly impressed with turners who had used butterfly inlays in turned work.

The opportunity for me to learn came when I offered to repair a broken bowl for a desperate customer. A bowl (made by another turner) had been dropped and all but broken in half. I researched various methods of repair and landed on the one I knew I could do with the tools I already had.

I decided to use butterfly patches using a router with an inlay guide-bushing set and a pattern to make both the recess and the insert. I chose a different bowl to illustrate the process in this article.

Note that the grain of the butterfly inlay must run 90 degrees to the crack to give it full strength. If it runs the same direction, the butterfly itself could eventually break. Usually, I prefer the butterfly to be of a contrasting wood, but that is a matter of preference. Choose wood that is strong but relatively easy to work by hand because you will typically have to do a little tweaking with a chisel or knife. I usually use black walnut for dark patches and birch for light patches.

Router Considerations

I originally used an old Craftsman router with good success, but its motor was often misaligned, and it required a lot of care to advance the bit and keep it in the same relative position. Although the handles were fairly high on the base, I didn’t find it a problem, but when I tried a friend’s small plunge router (trying to solve the misalignment issue) with even higher handles, I found it had a very “top heavy” feel and was hard to maintain fine control.

I decided to get a new router, a smaller one for ease of handling, with as much power as my old router, and handles as low as possible. Variable speed and a soft start are also nice features. But most important of all, it had to be able to stay on center when I advanced the bit. While there were several choices on the market, I bought a Bosch Colt.

Inlay Bushings and Router Bits

Inlay bushings are made to attach easily to most router bases, with the face flush to the bottom of the base. A centered protrusion around the bit follows a pattern and has a removable collar that allows for negative and positive shapes (recess and insert). Leave the collar in place to create the recess, and remove it to make the insert. Before you purchase an inlay-bushing set, confirm that it will work with your router base. In my case, I used the lathe to turn a custom router base from 1/4″- (6mm) thick acrylic, so it would accept the bushing with a perfect fit.

While it would be possible to make the cuts using a bit with straight flutes, spiral cutters make much cleaner cuts. Downward spirals leave a very clean cut at the surface but tend to load the recess with shavings. Upward spirals clear the chips better, but they tend to rip the surface of the wood. So if you find yourself installing a butterfly in a finished bowl, an upward spiral would be a poor choice. My preference is the downward spiral cutter; I simply clear the chips between levels of cut. Router bits are available in 1/8″ (3mm) and 1/4″ diameters, so you must take that into account when choosing a removable collar for an inlay bushing.

Make an Inlay Pattern

As far as I can tell, all commercially available inlay patterns are made from acrylic, so I had a friend with a laser engraver make my first one. I found pretty quickly, however, that I wanted more sizes because the inlays should be in proportion to the turned piece. So that I wouldn’t have to constantly go cap inhand to my friend’s shop, I came up with an easy method of making the router patterns from wood. Choose a hardwood like hard maple, oak, or similar.

A pattern should be large enough for the router to ride on it securely without rocking. About 3″ × 5″ (8cm × 13cm) is good, as it will work for most “bowl-size” butterflies and still provide a stable platform. If you had to make a significantly larger butterfly, consider increasing the outside dimensions to maintain stability. I now make my patterns 3/8″ (10mm) thick, rather than the more common 1/4″, for two reasons. First, I found (sadly, during an IRD) that because the pattern was barely thicker than the inlay bushing, the router teetered on the bushing on a small-diameter bowl, messing up the cut. Second, a thicker pattern allows more room for shavings, which helps to prevent build-up.

An inlay pattern requires a top, bottom, and four center sections cut to your preferred dovetail angle for the butterfly. After some trial and error, I chose to make my dovetail angles 15 degrees.

Make a simple clamping device and glue and clamp the components, as shown. This photo shows the completed inlay pattern, trimmed and ready to use.

Rout the Inlays

As described earlier, the router bushing set has a removable collar. Take the collar off, leaving the small-diameter “follower” when cutting inserts. Before adhering the pattern to the wood with hot-melt glue, I put masking tape on both the pattern and the wood being machined. This allows for easy removal of the pattern and the hot-melt glue.

Rout as many inserts as you can get from a piece of waste wood, making them as thick as you want. I make mine at least 1/4″ thick, from wood that is at least 1/2″ to 3/4″ (13mm to 19mm) thick. You’ll have to re-attach the pattern for each insert. When you have as many routed as you want, cut the inserts out at the bandsaw. If you don’t have a bandsaw, this can be done with a handsaw or table saw with a zero-clearance table insert.

Rout the Recess

Butterfly inlays are generally “blind,” meaning they don’t go all the way through the vessel wall. If you have a thin-walled vessel, where the butterfly does go right through, be aware that the small amount of handwork in fine-tuning the recess must be precise. Any cuts that aren’t 90 degrees to the surface of the bowl can show up as a gap on the inside.

I like to re-mount the bowl on my lathe at an angle, using the face of the chuck and the tailstock to position the work area as horizontal as possible. Determine where you want the butterfly inlay, place the pattern on the crack, trace around the inside of the pattern with a pencil, then check to see if the shape, orientation and proportions are to your liking.

Place masking tape outside those lines in any place you expect to place hot-melt glue (usually the full outside dimension of the pattern). I use blue painter’s tape because it tends to conform to the compound curve of a bowl nicely.

Apply a spot of hot-melt glue at the two points that form the “waist” of the butterfly, and secure the pattern in place. Once it is in place, glue wedges under the four corners, or wherever possible, to provide adequate support while routing.

Important: Be careful to maintain the angle of the pattern so that it is tangent to the surface of the bowl. I usually have a selection of wedges at the ready, dry-fit them, then apply a dab of glue on the top and bottom of the wedges before affixing them. Having long wedges keeps your fingers away from the hot hot-melt glue.

Butterfly inlays just 1/8″ thick will provide adequate strength, so I rout the recess at least that deep, plus an allowance for any finishing cuts on the bowl during turning. After setting the router-bit depth so that it is contacting the surface of the bowl, I put a piece of tape on the router’s depth scale at the full depth to make it easier to see. I like to use one of the corners for the “home” corner, extend the bit while the router is running, then move the router clockwise around the pattern.

Be sure to remove any wood remaining in the center as well. I usually take a 1/8″-deep cut, remove the router to clear the chips, go back to the home position, then lower the bit the rest of the way. If you can’t lower the bit while the router is running (like my old Craftsman), extend the cutter away from the pattern and enter the cut somewhere away from the edge before moving it to your home corner. Always let the bit come to a full stop before removing the router from the pattern.

After routing the recess, it will be necessary to cut the dovetail corners to a sharp angle, as the router will leave them rounded. Alternately, you could leave the rounded corners as is, in which case you would have to not only round the corners of the insert to match but also do all the fine-tuning on the insert, not the recess.

Fit and Glue the Inlay

Test the fit of the inlay in the recess to see which way it fits the best, then mark an “X” on one end so you will always test the fit in the same position. The inlay bushing creates a fit that is actually “too” exact, so the fit will have to be relaxed a bit. Place the insert over the recess, hugging one side of the recess with one side of the insert, and scribe around the other side and both ends with a sharp craft knife.

Use that line to locate the chisel to take off fine shavings as required. Alternately, you can work the sides of the butterfly insert to adjust the fit. It is safer and allows greater accuracy to hold the insert with a clamp while making these cuts. You can touch the ends on a belt sander or use your chisel. I’ve taken both approaches and have found that adjusting the recess is easier.

Chamfer the inside edges of the insert to make for an easy entry into the recess. The fit should be a nice push fit or even a tap fit. Don’t put it all the way in until you apply glue, as it probably won’t come back out without damage.

While cyanoacrylate (CA) glue is acceptable, I prefer regular woodworking glue, as I feel it offers a more permanent hold. If possible, drive the inlay home with a clamp, making a glue bond at the bottom of the recess. Depending on the glue brand you use, clamping is usually required for an hour, with full strength in 24 hours. However, there is very little stress on a well-fit butterfly while turning, so it is reasonable to turn in an hour. I have never had an insert move during turning.

With regular glue, there is usually some squeeze-out into the crack. I try to “dam” the crack with a sliver of wood to prevent that. You could also remove the squeeze-out with a series of pointy blades, slivers of wood, and/or dental picks. With the butterfly inlay glued in place, continue turning the bowl as you normally would.

Closing Thoughts

Generally, cracks that need a repair are obvious, but some aren’t. My feeling is that when the wood’s moisture content has reached equilibrium with the surrounding atmosphere, as with a roughturned bowl that has sufficiently dried, it will not move or crack further. So if a crack is clearly minor, while others on the same bowl have been patched, most people will understand that the bowl will remain stable in its current state.

I am often asked if filling a crack (along with using a butterfly) is a good idea. If you have a salad bowl with a crack low on the walls, filling the crack would maintain the bowl’s functionality. But for more aesthetic pieces, I would leave it unfilled. You may also just simply want to fill it. In either case, I would fill after inserting the butterfly, in case the placement of the butterfly breaks the bond between the filler and the wood.

When I teach new turners, I emphasize the need to honor the wood, to give it their best effort. Using butterflies to salvage a broken piece or to make use of wood with natural imperfections is a way of honoring the wood. The Japanese call the art of repairing broken pottery vessels kintsugi. Cracks are part of the “scenery” and history of a vessel and should be honored, rather than disguised. A butterfly repair on wood is no less attractive than figured grain and becomes part of the story of a wooden vessel.

Ed Pretty has been turning wood for more than sixty years, initially learning traditional spindle techniques from his father. After retiring from a thirty-six-year career as a professional firefighter, Ed now turns full time. Ed offers an interactive remote demo (IRD) on crack repair in turned bowls. Learn more at edswoodturning.com.

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– Andrew Limeri
Framingham, Massachusetts

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Preparing Quartersawn Stock

Round up some attractive 4/4 quartersawn white oak so you can make the four big panels for this project — the top, two side rails and the shelf. The top is large enough that if you don’t have a large planer or drum sander, you might need to glue it up in sections. While the panels are in clamps, mill the 1-3/4″-thick leg blanks from some 8/4 stock, making sure they come out flat and square. Go ahead and make blanks for the front, back and shelf rails as well as the backsplash from 3/4″ material.

I often mutter, “Joinery before curves” and “Mortises before tenons,” and we’ll take both of those mottoes to heart with this build. Lay out the 1/4″-wide mortises as shown in the Leg Mortise/Taper Detail Drawings, and machine or chop them with your best method. Cut 1/4″-wide x 3-1/2″-long mortises on the inside of the front legs to receive the curved front rail. Start these mortises 4-1/4″ from the tops of the legs, and inset them 3/8″ from the front faces. The back rail requires 1/4″ x 4-1/2″ mortises that start 1/2″ from the top of the legs. Position them 1/2″ in from the back faces of the back of the legs so the outward face of the back rail will be flush with the back faces of the legs. The mortises for the shelf rails need to be 2-1/2″ long, and they start 7-3/4″ up from the bottom of the legs. Locate these mortises 5/8″ away from the inside edge of the leg so they will be properly positioned once the legs are tapered.

I was tempted to make the centered 11″-long mortises for the side rails with a router and edge guide, but clamping the workpiece for that operation is sometimes problematic. So, I used a 1/4″ hollow chisel in my mortising machine instead. Take note that the mortises for the side rails are only 3/4″ deep, while all the other mortises are 1″ deep.

Once the mortises are chopped and cleaned out, it makes sense to work on the tenons next. When you look over the plans for this project, there are admittedly some cross-grain issues, and it would be difficult to build this form conventionally without violating some rules of wood movement. That’s why, as with the original, the grain of the side rails runs vertically and not horizontally. With a dado stack installed on the table saw, cut 3/4″-long tenons on the side panels to fit the long mortises.

Aim for an easy friction fit, because these long-grain tenons are somewhat vulnerable to breaking until the frame is glued together, if they are flexed. Then reset the rip fence for making 1″-long tenons on the front, back and shelf rails. The front rail has a simple centered “blind” tenon, however the back rail is a little different.

To position the outer face of the back rail flush with the outer faces of the back legs, an off set tenon is required. So, raise the blade incrementally to cut those tenons until they fit the 4-1/2″-long mortises you made in the back legs. When all the tenons are sawn, fine-tune their fit with a shoulder plane until they slide easily but not sloppily into their mortises.

More Preliminary Details

Now that the basic joinery for the server is complete, go ahead and mark out the curve on the front rail. Use a flexible strip of wood or a thin metal yardstick to lay out this line so it creates a smooth, flowing arch and leaves the front rail just 1-1/2″ wide at the apex of the curve.

Cut the arch at your band saw or with a handheld jigsaw, sawing just to the waste side of the layout line. Then fair and smooth the curve up to your layout line using a drum or spindle sander. Start with 80- or 100-grit, and work up from there.

This is also a good time to cut 1/4″-deep grooves along the inside faces of the side rails to receive the shelf. Center these 3/4″-wide grooves on the rail widths. I have found it easiest to cut the grooves first, then plane the shelf’s thickness down until it fits the grooves without gaps. Then, assemble all the parts you’ve made so far to confirm the actual size of the shelf. Measuring directly off the project will give you confidence to proceed with trimming the shelf to final size.

Next up, we need to taper the legs on two sides. There’s a long taper on the front face of the front legs and on the back face of the back legs.

The left or right outer faces of all four legs have two tapers instead of one: a short one on top and a long one below it, which matches the long tapers on the adjacent faces of the legs. The four long tapers remove 1/2” of material at the bottom of the legs, reducing them to 1-1/4″ x 1-1/4″ at the floor.

These primary tapers are 25″ long, stopping just short of the upper rail joinery. The subtle top outer tapers are 4″ long, and they remove just 1/8″ of material from the top left or right faces of the legs. This gives the server “hips” when viewed from the front.

While you could certainly band-saw the tapers, I like the precision of using a tapering jig at the table saw. Mark the taper cuts carefully and saw the first long one on each leg. Then rotate the leg blank away from the blade to make the second long taper cut. The single short side taper at the top of each leg can be completed in the same way.

Take a little time now to ease edges of the parts you’ve made. Pay particular attention to “safe edges” or areas you don’t want to round over. Notably, these are where the back legs intersect the back rail. Likewise, the back edge of the top panel stays crisp for the addition of the backsplash. None of the shelf edges should be eased, either. Finish-sand all the parts up to 150- or 180-grit.

Assembling the Sideboard Framework

Retrieve the backsplash workpiece you made earlier so you can round both of its top corners to a 1/4″ radius before attaching it permanently to the top panel. Finish-sand both of these workpieces up to 150- or 180-grit first.

Glue alone is sufficient for strength, but I always add a row of #20 biscuits for alignment when attaching a backsplash in this manner, so cut those mating biscuit slots if you decide to do the same. Glue and clamp the backsplash to the top panel with the biscuits installed, then start assembling the server’s frame. First, create a pair of side assemblies by gluing two pairs of legs together with their side and shelf rails. Be sure the top edges of the side rails are flush with the tops of the legs as you draw the clamps tight. Allow those joints to dry.

When the side assemblies come out of the clamps, bring the two together by gluing the front and back rail tenons into their mortises and the shelf in its rail grooves. Double-check the height between the top of the front rail and the tops of the front legs, which should be 4″. Tighten the clamps, and set the frame aside to dry overnight. Then drill 7/8″-deep holes through the long tenons, centered 3/8″ from the edge of the leg, so you can peg the joints with 3/8″-diameter dowels. The front and shelf rails receive two pegs per joint.

Building a Side-Hung, Center-Guided Drawer

You can construct the drawer box however you like, but I thought half-blind dovetails were a proper choice for a Stickley-style reproduction. You can see the dovetail layout I used with my router dovetail jig in the Dovetail Detail Drawing. The original server appears to have a “piston-fit” drawer, but I elected to use a different Stickley hallmark: a side-hung
and center-guided drawer. While there’s a little more work constructing a drawer with these features, it promises trouble-free operation for a long time. The center runner prevents racking and conveniently acts as a drawer stop, while the top edges of the side runners are the only points of contact when sliding the drawer in or out. (To see side-hung, center-guided drawers in action, look for a video on my YouTube channel, The Thoughtful Woodworker.)

Now rout a groove in the drawer sides to receive the side runners. This 3/4″-wide groove needs to stop about 1-1/4″ from the front of the drawer sides, and it’s best cut on the router table. Make sure to use a router bit capable of making plunge cuts, as one of the grooves should be made by tipping the drawer down over the bit with the drawer standing on its side and against the router table fence (often referred to as a “drop cut”). The groove in the other drawer side can be cut in the traditional fashion, starting the groove from the back edge of the drawer instead of at the stopped end of the cut. Set the length of these groove cuts with a stop block clamped to the router table fence. The reason for routing these two side runner grooves differently — a drop cut for one and a typical groove cut for the other — is to ensure that both grooves line up exactly with one another across the drawer so it will hang evenly in its opening and slide smoothly.

Loosely assemble the drawer to check the final sizing of the drawer bottom panel. Cut a plywood panel for it to size Finish-sand all the drawer parts, then prefinish the drawer front. Once the finish dries, glue the drawer together with the bottom and divider in place.

The secret to fitting this type of drawer is to mill the 1/2″-thick filler strips with the same router table setup as the side runner grooves you just made. So, make up a pair of filler strips from scrap stock and lower the router bit height to 1/16″. Rout a groove into one face of each filler strip along its full length. Mark the edge of each filler strip that was against the router table fence “top.” Then bore three pocket holes that face the “top” edge of the filler strips for attaching the top panel later. Fasten the filler strips to the inside faces of the side rails with screws. Set their marked “top” edges flush with the top edges of the rails. Then head to the table saw and trim 1/16″ of width from the drawer parts on both the top and bottom edges to set the drawer reveal. Hand-plane the divider’s top edge flush with the other edges.

At this point we’ve laid the groundwork for a really nice drawer, and there are just a few remaining parts to build. Make up a pair of drawer runners from maple or other dimensionally stable hardwood. Size them to slide easily in the drawer grooves, and notch their back ends so they’ll fit around the back legs. Mount them in the filler strip grooves with countersunk screws.

The back of the drawer also needs a 1/4″ x 2-1/2″ centered notch to make room for the track that’s mounted underneath it. Saw that notch now. Then make the drawer track component from 1/2″ stock, and cut a tongue on one end to fit the mortise you made earlier beneath the bottom panel groove in the drawer front. The track also needs a 1/4″-deep x 2-1/2″-wide groove plowed into its bottom face and centered on its width to receive the center slide. Install the track on the drawer by fitting its tongue into the drawer front mortise and securing the back end in the notch in the drawer back with a couple of small screws.

You’re ready to install cleats in the server to support the center slide. Make up the 1″-wide cleats from scrap stock. Cut centered notches, about 1/16″ deep, into the top edges of both cleats to register the slide before fastening the cleats to the inside faces of the front and back rails with screws. Locate them so the top edge of the front cleat is flush with the top edge of the front rail. Position the back cleat’s top edge 4″ down from the top edge of the back rail.

Make up the center slide from a piece of dimensionally stable hardwood. Cut a notch into its front and back bottom edges, leaving a 3/8″-thick tongue to fit into the slide cleat notches. Set the slide into place in the server and test the drawer action. If it opens and closes smoothly, fasten the slide’s tongues to the cleats with countersunk screws.

Applying a Multi-step Finish

I use a multi-step stain-over-dye technique, which enhances the figure of quartersawn white oak and lends a vintage appearance to the piece. I start with TransTint Dark Mission Brown Dye. To avoid raising the grain, I mix 1-1/2 ounces of concentrated dye into a quart of a 50/50 mix of denatured alcohol and lacquer thinner. Apply the dye with a terrycloth-wrapped sponge. Adding five to 10 percent lacquer retarder will slow the drying time and help avoid lap marks. I then seal the dye with a light coat of sprayed shellac (don’t wipe or brush on the shellac, as it will resuspend the alcohol-based dye) before applying General Finishes Antique Walnut Gel Stain. I complete the finish by spraying on two coats of satin lacquer.

Attach the top panel to the server’s frame by driving 1-1/4″ pocket screws up into the filler strip pocket holes. You will notice that I added dowel pins to the tops of the front legs. They are optional but do help to register the top evenly. Complete this lovely little server by installing a reproduction Stickley drawer pull, centered on the drawer front.

Click Here for the Drawings and Materials List.

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DVR in the Driver’s Seat

Let’s start with the lathe’s business end — a 1.5hp direct-drive Digital Variable Reluctance (DVR) motor. It’s both powerful and coupled with an advanced control system. Striatech’s Intelligent Direct Drive controls deliver remarkable torque across all speed settings — from 100 to 3,500 rpm. Included in the programming for the motor is a chisel jam detection feature that will stop the machine if something goes awry. Also part of the safety package is electronic braking to ensure rapid stops. I believe it’s the most sophisticated lathe motor system in the industry.

The Neptune is sized to allow home-shop turners the opportunity to create really large bowls inboard with its 15″ swing (18″ between centers) and outboard turning diameters up to 20″. Outboard turning is accomplished with a power head that slides the full length of the bed and pivots 360 degrees. To further accommodate outboard turning, Nova has developed a full set of tool-rest extensions and outriggers.

The takeaway from all this is that the Neptune performs well above its “weight class,” so to speak. It will likely fulfill many turner’s desires for a large lathe without the significant footprint or price.

Screen Time

In addition to the high-tech motor, this lathe’s control screen is an HMI (Human Machine Interface) icon-based system. There are speed chart icons for rough cuts, fine and finish cuts, load level, a diameter-based speed chart, an unbalanced load icon, favorite speed control, a break-enabled warning icon and a reverse rotation icon. All of those surround a large active rpm display. This icon-based layout is another step forward in lathe design.

Nova has taken the time to fully accessorize the Neptune, too. From the standard benchtop version you can add benchtop mounting plates, heavy-duty legs, a bed extension, tool-rest extension for turning large-diameter stock and an outrigger for even larger-diameter turnings. In other words, the basic unit can grow as your skills expand. Fully outfitted with all the accessories, it becomes a lifetime tool — one that few home-shop turners will ever outgrow.

Nicely done, Nova. Here’s a new niche in the lathe marketplace that will fit many woodturners’ shop spaces and pocketbooks.

Nova Neptune

Motor: 1.5hp DVR, 110/240-volt

Speed Range: 100 to 3,500 rpm

Swing Over Bed: 15″

Distance Between Centers: 18″

Spindle: 1-1⁄4″ diameter, 8 tpi

Quill: 2.4″ travel; #2 Morse Taper

Headstock: Swivels 360 degrees

Indexing: 24 positions, electronic

Controls: Icon-based screen; Intelligent Direct Drive

Safety: Electronic braking, chisel jam detection

Weight: 125 lbs

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