Spackle & Sawdust

Upon seeing the version I built for my kids this past Christmas, my brother-in-law suggested that his daughter, Veronica, might like one as well. I’d already fielded a few requests for these and figured I really needed to come up with a more practical design — something a bit more portable/shippable and lighter weight. The original was also a bit unstable on heavily padded carpet such as that in our basement. So the new design would need to feature longer feet on the side wings as well.

With all of this in mind, here’s the newest design, which I’ve dubbed the “Veronica” after my niece.

Veronica in the Puppet Theater

The frames are solid maple with 1/2″ maple plywood panels. The top panel features a shop-cut birdseye maple veneer that I coaxed my Grizzly drum sander into thicknessing down to 3/64″. The intarsia is the same pattern used on the original, though this time I used bloodwood and mahogany, which I found significantly easier to shape than the original in purpleheart and walnut.

Intarsia Comedy/Tragedy Masks (bloodwood and mahogany)

The whole piece breaks down into four components, the two “wings,” the lower front panel with stage, and the top proscenium arch with intarsia masks. Threaded inserts in the front panels accept six (3 per side) brass 1/4 – 20 bolts passed through the wings. The curtain (built by my wife’s best friend Lisa) attaches to the arch simply with a strip of velcro.

Veronica’s expression upon viewing the theater for the first time was priceless! Hopefully she’ll get many years enjoyment from her new theater.

Here’s the project page on Lumberjocks.com

And here’s the page for the original:

Now We’re Getting Somewhere

The front came out so nice, I’ve updated the design to include frame-and-panel side wings instead of plain edge-banded cherry ply as I had originally envisioned. It’s been a busy couple of weeks and there hasn’t been much shop time available, but I’ve scraped together enough hours — usually after bedtime — to finally cut, shape, and assemble the side panels (the theater’s “wings”) and prop the whole thing up. Now we’re getting somewhere!

Framed again

One of the coolest things about this particular project has been the wood. I purchased a pile of cherry on sale some time ago and it’s been sitting mostly idle since. So far, I’ve had no trouble finding the perfect board for each step of the way. And when I say perfect, I mean more than just color and grain. The frames for the sides were out of one board and the panels for both came entirely out of another — with almost zero off cut beyond basic squaring and trimming. Dude. I don’t think I’ve ever used a rough board so completely. I usually don’t make patterns, but as the sides called for mirror image curves, I figured it was a good idea in this case.

Tracing the curve pattern

Test Assembly of the Domino Joints

Knot a Problem

Knots can add a lot of interest to a piece. Ever since I built a dresser for my son Nathan, and was stuck using a board with a large knot in it for the top, I’ve come to actually seek them out for projects like this. This knot in a side panel is about the size of a silver half dollar on the back and results in a 3/4″ long slit in the front that goes straight through. Somewhere along the line I came across an article, or online post, or something that suggested filling large knots with epoxy. It worked so well for Nate’s dresser, I’ve been using the technique ever since. After it hardens, the light may still bleed through, but there’s no way this knot hole will ever chip out or expand. Thanks to whomever I stole this idea from!

Filling a large knot with epoxy

Glue up

Don’t Take a Bow…

My biggest fear with this piece is that during a more animated production, it’ll tip forward onto the audience. The wings are 12″ wide, but they don’t extend very far beyond the front of the stage. I figured it would be a good idea to build some chunky feet for them to stand on — and extend them a couple inches beyond the front. As with everything else for this project, I just happened to have the perfect piece of cherry leftover from an end grain cutting board. Once again, the Festool Domino made quick work of the mortise and loose tenon joints that would have taken far longer to do any other way.

Truth be told, I’m still a bit concerned. The feet will certainly prevent accidental tipping under normal use, but my 2 and 3-year-old boys can get rather…um…dramatic at times. I’m wondering if maybe I need to anchor this piece to the floor?!?

Feet for the wings shaped and mortised

Test Assembly

After attaching the feet, I was anxious to finally see the whole thing assembled. The puppet theater is designed to knock down for transport and storage, so I drilled some holes in the sides of the front to accept threaded inserts. The plan is then to drill matching holes in the wings and use 4 hex head RTA-style screws on each side to hold it together. The last time I used this technique was for the cherry crib I built for my youngest son from purchased plans. I had an issue with the threaded inserts tearing out the top layer of the cherry as the very course threads bit. I’m going to experiment a bit this time to see if using a slightly larger hole and/or chamfering the rim of the hole will eliminate or at least significantly lessen the problem.

Testing the assembly with Wings clamped to the stage

Next Steps…

The design calls for comedy/tragedy masks in the center of the birdseye maple panel. I’ve done quite a few inlays, but this time I’m thinking intarsia would be more appealing. However, I’ve never tried intarsia before, so this should be interesting, and hopefully a great learning experience. I’ve pre-finished the panels (single coat) and have been sanding to 220 all along, so everything’s pretty much ready to begin applying the tung oil finish. There’s also the curtains my wife’s best friend is making, and the felt backdrop and scenery pieces my sister-in-law’s working on. Finally, I’m planning to build a “tree” to hold the over 30 puppets my wife has already purchased from Costco.

Two weeks to go before the big reveal on Christmas morning…it should all be ready!

Birdseye Maple on Cherry

The design for the top panel calls for birdseye maple. It seemed a shame to use my only piece of birdseye maple up on just one project. I decided to resaw the board. A few passes through my old Grizzly G1066 sander later and I had a beautiful 3/32″ sheet of birdseye maple veneer. Because this is going to be used for a raised panel, I had to decide on the substrate. One technique I’d seen and had always wanted to try was using a different species substrate in a raised panel. The rest of the piece was cherry and I figured this would make for a really sweet contrast.

3/32" Birdseye Maple Veneer from the G1066

Completed Raised Panel of Birdseye Maple Laminated over Cherry

Assembly & Glue-up

Last Spring I picked up a Festool Domino at my local Woodcraft. Shortly after, my wife gave birth to our 4th child and the shop was essentially shuttered for the next several months. Now I’m finally getting a chance to play with it — and it definitely lives up to it’s press. The frame went together like a dream, about as fast as using a biscuit cutter, while working on much narrower members and holding together well without clamps during test assembly. These were by far the fastest mortise and loose tenon joints I’d ever created. The front panel went together clean and tight.

Test Assembly of the Domino Joints

Glue-up

Setting the Stage

No theater can be complete without a stage. This one extends 1″ beyond the sides and 1″ front and back. Rather than nibble away a notch on each side of the stage, I figured it’d be easier to rip the board in three sections, cut the middle piece shorter, and glue it back together. The result looks great with no visible glue line and, after a bit of touch up with a chisel, fit perfectly. After sanding the piece to 220, I ran a bead of glue on the frame and stage and clamped ‘em together. Since it’s long grain to long grain, and a pretty good fit, no joinery should be necessary.

Notching the Stage

Sanded to 220, the Stage Glued In Place

It’s been a very busy past couple of months. I’ve built a couple more mantels that I still need to post some pics of and in my “day job” we’ve moved offices…which meant a great deal of planning and work on setting up a new server room. I also had the Woodcraft Magazine article matted. Clearly it wouldn’t do to purchase a frame for an article about a woodshop, so I whipped one together in the shop.

The base frame is popular veneered with resawn Cocobolo and trimmed with Panga-Panga. The Cocobolo’s been sitting around the shop, around 20 or so bd ft that was misshipped to me some years ago. I figured this was as good a use as any! The frame itself isn’t terribly intricate, but this was only the second project I actually designed in the shop “on the fly.” It was a great deal of fun and I think it came out rather nice. The finish is a bit rough since I really wanted to deliver it on a specific date and had to rush in the end..but I think it works.

It’s been a bit crazy around here.

Work (at my “real job”) has been hectic and busy …a good thing…, I’ve started back to school to finally finish a software engineering degree ...another good thing…, and now I’ve been contacted by a designer specializing in fireboxes and mantles who’s sending work my way …a very good thing.

The first piece she sent me is called the Staub Mantle. This is a painted piece, more of what I would consider carpentry than fine woodworking, but it was a fun piece to build nonetheless. One of the best parts of this particular job was it gave me an excuse to finally buy an Earlex HV5000 HVLP sprayer (review to come) to paint it. Since it was shipped, I had to crate is up as well…another first for me.

I think it came out pretty well…

Staub Mantle

Crated