Where the creative work happens

My new-old drafting board

My first drafting training was in carpentry school over fifty years ago. Back then the work was done with a collection of hand tools and a T square working off the side of the drafting table.

Eventually, a business partner of mine showed me how to draw with a ‘modern’ drafting arm–the type with two rotating elbows that just kind of folded out over the table. That worked pretty well for about four decades. Eventually though, that (now old) drafting arm, just plain wore out. I threw it in the trash and geared up to buy another one.

I was soon discouraged to find that in the United States you cannot buy mechanical drafting arms any more. Computer Aided Drawing has (almost) entirely taken over the market. I do not know anything about computer drawing and so was left aghast! What does an old guy have to do just to get a drawing made these days? I started poking around on eBay.

To my delight I discovered a used drafting machine available. It was advertised as the drafting machine only–no table. I bought it for a few hundred dollars and it arrived in good shape. This is a different type of machine than any I ever used. It has a steel track at the top and the vertical drafting arm rolls on that track. Then there is a drafting head with normal rulers that travels up or down that vertical beam. It has a protractor head that turns to any degree you like. It is hard to describe with words but you can see it in the photos.

The craft and skill (and art) of furniture design

This winter I built a drafting board and the stand for that board from a new sheet of plywood and some salvaged white oak lumber from a failed personal project of setting up a three-season greenhouse with raised beds. I learned I am not a farmer, I am a woodworker!

For the drawing board, I bought four locking casters so the unit can be turned here and there as needed. I love this new-to-me drafting machine and custom drafting board. Sure, it is old fashioned but so am I, I guess.

I used a gaggle of old, solid wood panels we had lying around the shop to build a new drafting cart as well to hold the other tools of my trade. The panels were thick and heavy so the cart could maybe someday be used to anchor an aircraft carrier. Well, things in a woodshop must be sturdy.

One thing I have experienced since I launched into furniture building and refinishing over twenty years ago, is this. By creating hand drawn drawings my customers often make comments like “OH–you are an artist!” which is pretty nice praise for a guy who just does old fashioned drafting.

I am not a marvel of modern production. I was made over seventy years ago and, with a little tinkering and repairs, likely can last quite a while longer. The drafting machine will probably outlast me. In any case, I am blessed to still be working with my hands, I am blessed to have two good guys to assist in the shop. And now, I am double-blessed to have this good old machine to make our products better and my life easier.

Antique Clock — “A surprise for Dad”

Antique clock repair and refinish project

This clock came into the shop as a rebuild and refinish project. The lady who brought it in wanted two pieces (a desk and the clock) completed. They were surprises for her father who she mentioned ‘is about your age’. The desk was a piece he made as his first woodworking project in high school. It got pretty beat up and broken after over five decades. To my regret, I forgot to take any photos of the desk. I often forget to take photos. It’s the kind of deal where you kick yourself in the shins for being forgetful. Nevertheless, we did get several photos of the clock along the way.

Some assembly required

The clock was to be a birthday present for her father. When the lady packed that pile of pieces in and stacked them on my workbench it was a little hard to tell how to reassemble the broken-up thing. All the trims around the clock face were broken off, the old glue kind of dissolved I guess.

When I went to work on it I picked around here and there trying to figure out how those pieces went back together. I found a black lump along the left side and started picking at it. That was when I discovered it was a hinge! Man, it was completely frozen in time. I soaked it in solvents and scrubbed it with fine steel wool. It started to budge a little, then it crept open. Eventually that hinge worked like new and the original finish was still pretty good under all the gunk. So, I figured out that the loose clock trims actually assembled into a round door for the clockface.

A facelift for this antique beauty

There was no glass in that clockface door but I found traces of old finish and a couple of those tiny steel triangles, called glaziers’ points, that they used to use to hold glass into an opening. You can still buy those and I stock them in my shop. I priced the cost of that 12-1/8” diameter glass and found it so cheap I just told the guy to make it. Then I contacted the customer and asked her if she wanted to get glass for that door for under $18, bring it to my shop, and I would install it for free. She was thrilled.

The new glass fit perfect when it arrived. I popped it in place, tapped a few glaziers’ points behind it, and voila, that 150-year-old clock sure came to life. I am guessing now that the original clock door assembly probably had a bead of glazier’s compound packed in around the edge of the glass. I never even thought about that until the unit had been picked up and gone.

The pre-repairs clock face was stained and dirty and it looked pretty bad. The challenge was to clean off the grime without damaging the original numeral decals and background white paint. I started cleaning with mild soapy water but that accomplished nothing. Then I tried my most trusted general cleaner, paint thinner. One thing I like about paint thinner is that is dissolves a wide variety of dirty marks and residues but has never, in my experience, damaged an underlying solid surface or even carpet. It was, however, another failed effort. That dirty face remained solidly soiled.

The next strongest cleaner in my refinisher’s chemical resources is brush cleaner. Brush cleaner is pretty potent. It’s highly flammable (think gasoline), smells strong, and it sure burns if you get it in an open cut – it also dissolves all the thinner plastic and nitrile gloves in the shop. The good news is that with some careful scrubbing with 00 steel wool the old paint splatters and shellac finish messes started to loosen up and go away. It came out pretty clean, though not like new. After a while the decal numerals began to wash away so it was time to quit that business. I am certain you can still buy those decals new but my customer did not want that.

Looking sharp!

Oh—you might wonder why an old clock would have a hinged door over the clock face. The reason is that the clock had to be wound up to work. The key hole for winding was in the clockface and the door was there to protect both the clockface and to allow access to the keyhole.

The project turned out nicely and the customer was brightly happy. She mentioned, now that the clock case was all restored, it looked sharp enough that maybe she would try to find someone to repair the clock’s works. I am certain there are guys out there who can do that repair. But this old guy (her father’s age) will leave that for somebody with clockwork’s repair experience.

Red Oak Dining Table Refinish

This old red oak table was quite a mess when it arrived.

It was stored in a damp garage for years leaving it filthy. Boards in the top had separated as the old glue gave out so the top was in numerous pieces when it arrived.

You can see the difference in color when we first sanded half of the top. That new wood color is almost always hiding under the ruined finishes on these antique pieces.

We stained it a nice medium brown (Minwax Honey if memory serves correctly). Out of that seemingly destroyed old wreck came this finished beauty. It is all solid oak, no veneers, so it ought to be good for another century.

Furniture Repair: Fire & Water Damage

This dining room set was nearly ruined in a house fire.

We completely repaired and restored this oak dining table and chairs, considerably damaged in a house fire.

Fire and Water Damaged Furniture

When we received this dining table and chairs from the restoration crew, one end of the table was broken off by the collapse of a water soaked ceiling and insulation. Three of the chairs were so water damaged that the seats fell apart into multiple pieces. Water had literally washed/soaked away about a third of the finishes on this dining set. The baby chair had a leg burned black at the lower end. It was in rough shape.

Refinishing this dining set, however, is exactly the kind of challenge we enjoy! There is always something satisfying about being able to strip and refinish a large dining table. The transformation is pretty fun to see.

Refinishing and Repair Techniques

The chair seats were broken into several pieces and had to be re-glued, sanded smooth, and refinished.

One chair had a rung missing so I had our favorite wood turner custom make one to match the existing rungs. We installed the new custom rung and when the project was complete you would never know one rung had been replaced.

Once we get to spraying the professional finish on table tops, one of the things I like to do to make the finish shine is to spray on two or three coats of sanding sealer, instead of just one coat, before I apply any top clear coats. Sanding sealer in multiple layers gives the table top finish some nice depth.

In the end this restored and refinished dining set turned out great, and should be good for a few decades or at least until the next house fire.

Making a Custom Curved Handrail

Restoration Project Handrail

Custom woodworking can take a lot of unexpected directions sometimes.

This railing is for a restoration project in our area. The new piece of railing needed is less than four feet long and the rail profile is not available. In fact the goose neck on the original railing appears to be hand made which is what we will do also.

Often times we can reproduce old moldings and woodworking with machine made parts that are very close to the original moldings. But once in a while we have to carve or otherwise replicate antique woodwork.

I wanted to play around a bit with this project and tried the draw knife to shape the curves on this oval rail profile. Once carved to a close shape the rail will be sanded smooth and ready for paint.

Antique Woodwork Keeps Things Interesting

One interesting aspect of the work will be the need to fit this oval railing goose neck directly into a ball on the top of one newel post. I told the architect that this joint would likely be the most difficult I ever had to make in my nearly 50 years of carpentry and woodworking. I am planning to hand carve that joint and maybe we can make a time lapsed video to demonstrate our hoped for success.

Why I Train Furniture Refinishing Apprentices

Here at Old Virginia Woodworking I do not hire laborers or carpenters I hire apprentices. There is a world of difference in my opinion. Typically when business owners hire people it is to fill a need for the business. That is true here as well but I have other motivations too.

I believe God has prepared me for such a day as this. Having worked in the building trades for 48 years God has been gracious to let me learn a great deal about building and woodworking. It is only by His gracious provision and kind providence that I have gained my skills. That providence has also helped me to own and provision a good sized shop full of modern tools and equipment.

My Dream Job – Woodworking & Furniture Refinishing

Here I am in my later years working on what many tradesmen would call their dream projects. We refinish a wide variety of furniture pieces. Some are quite nice antiques. We also build some new pieces and make custom moldings for restoration work. I often reflect on the kindness of God in allowing me to work on these desirable projects.

I realize there are numbers of guys around who would love to do the kind of work we do here and would be greatly blessed to have that opportunity. I have decided I ought to (to quote a famous Person) give as it has been given to me and give other guys a chance to learn what I have learned. Hence my commitment to train apprentices in refinishing and woodworking.

Suspender Man™ showing off the door project progress — Suspender Man™ showing off custom door project progress.

Working at My Calling

This is work I believe God has given me to do. It is right here in front of me. I do not have to go to Africa or any third world country (though I greatly respect those who do) in order to fulfill my calling. I can walk just 300 feet down to my shop and do some kind of good for Christ’s kingdom without moving anywhere or driving a single mile.

Given the moral decay and philosophical and spiritual collapse of the university systems and the general lack of trade school opportunities the need has never been greater for apprenticeship training. This idea of apprenticeships was a part of old Christendom that has been bypassed and forgotten for over a century.

Many people have heard the word apprentice but have no real, meaningful content for that concept. I am trying to revive an old idea that I believe is both biblically sound and useful in our time. I am doing something new by imitating something old. True, Christian apprenticeship involves more than just learning trade skills. It involves teaching and learning an entire worldview to go with the trade skills. This is what makes Christian apprenticeship Christian and it is why I am determined to train Christian apprentices. May God give me the grace to succeed to His glory.

BIG Custom Wood Panel (Mahogany)

This huge panel is the largest single panel of wood we have ever made – approximately 6’ x 8’. The wood is quarter sawn African Mahogany and finished at a full 1” thick.

It was an amazing project. Too large to be sanded in our 50” wide sander it was built in two pieces, sanded by machine, and then glued together. All final finishing was by hand.

*Built in two pieces because the size was so large*

*Gluing and clamping the two panels together*

*Custom wood panel at its finished size. Finish was applied as the final step.*

This big, new wood panel was not part of our restoration woodworking or custom moldings panoply. It is a stand alone piece that was designed to cover a huge hole in a customer’s shop wall and as a decorative touch for his business. It took four of us to get it lifted onto his trailer. Normally, one of the considerations in building wood slab like this is that a wood slab with no inset panels can expand and contract considerably with changes in weather and humidity. But in this case there will be no problem because the slab is not being used as a door or movable in any way.

Our woodworking takes many interesting twists and turns since each project is custom. Not everything we build is for historic renovation. In the case of this giant panel the ummm heavy lifting was done mostly by my shop manager and former apprentice, Tim.

Rebuild and Restoration of Hoosier Cabinet

Restoring a Hoosier Cabinet

When we restore and refurbish an old cabinet like this we can get into a wide variety of work. If the cabinet was made after about 1920 or so it could have cheap veneer plywood sides, bottom, and back.

These plywood panels soak up humidity or direct water from rain or other sources. Then the glue lets go between the veneers and the entire piece needs to be replaced. Sometimes you can simply remove the outer layer of the plywood and replace that layer with new veneer. An old iron can help. You use it to heat up the layer of peeling veneer and the heat softens the glue, and bingo, off comes the old veneer.

The new veneer has to be cut with care using a pattern. Then use contact cement to glue down the new veneer. It may sound hard but it is really easy. This Sellers cabinet is really just a variety of Hoosier cabinets but it was a cheap knock off made mostly of poplar wood, a wood which needs to be painted for It rarely looks good stained and varnished.

The best way to get the roll top desk to roll properly is, simply, to work it repeatedly until all the hidden paint crumbs break loose and the track clears enough to let the top move properly.

Don’t be afraid to try it and restore your Hoosier or Sellers Cabinet to its former glory!

Completing the Restoration of a Hoosier Cabinet

The first video we posted up above shows you know how tough this cabinet looked when we began. It was literally falling into parts on the floor. One of our most helpful products for restoring old, broken furniture is epoxy adhesive. Epoxy is tremendously strong, plus, you can add silica thickener to make it stay in the glue joints and not drool all over. Epoxy is a good filler/adhesive and fills up where broken bits of wood have gone missing.

Another trick that gets the job done faster is to use a good commercial paint stripper. Now that might sound like a bit overboard but if you ever try to use the hardware store products, well, you will be there for days with frustration to the moon. We use Benco brand paint stripper, and use rubber gloves, apron, and eye protection. Of course I can’t talk you into anything you just have to decide how many hours you want to spend to strip a cabinet.

Once cleaned up you should sand the cabinet. If you are going to paint your Hoosier Cabinet then prime it first and sand the primer. Then apply two coats of a high quality paint and, voila, you will have discovered a new hobby — or maybe discovered why people bring their furniture to guys like us for refinishing.

Priming a Custom Exterior Door

What’s the Purpose of Primer?

Many viewers may wonder what the purpose is in priming wood. Why bother priming when you can simply paint a couple of coats and be done with it?

Primer helps with several possible painting problems at once.

Primer has plenty of solids in it which block the underlying color, figure, and grain of the wood. If you hate painted wood then this seems like a bad thing. But if your goal in painting is to hide the wood look and gain an even color surface, then primer is your friend. In this case we used white primer but your paint supplier often can tint the primer toward the final paint color thus adding to the primer’s ability to hide the underlying surface (substrate in painter’s professional lingo).

Primer is designed to bond to that substrate better than paint: and excellent bonding is highly important in most paint projects. Who, after all, wants their new paint to be peeling and flaking? Additionally, paint will bond to primer better than to bare wood. The primer provides the bonding both to the underlying surface and it provides a good surface for paint to stick to.

Plus — Primer dries hard enough that it can be sanded to a silky smooth surface prior to painting. This gives the painter a superior clean, smooth surface to apply paint. If you want a professional paint project then take the time to prime the wood, sand the surface, and then apply a couple coats of the best quality paint.

Free advice from Suspender Man™

Couch Frame Repairs

We have many times repaired bracing for the undersides of couches and upholstered chairs. Often these good old pieces were built over a century ago. The techniques, tools, and materials by which springs support was achieved have changed over the decades. In most cases we can rework the underside of your antique spring-seat furniture to give it a long, new, refurbished life.

For some people there is a suspicion that the old wire springs are simply worn out. My experience is that this is rarely true. Typically it is the support for those springs that has given way. In most cases we can repair broken couch and chair frames back to new strength or better. And we can support those old spring seats to get them back to their original performance.

Restoration of furniture and refinishing is what we do here. Let us take a look before you toss that family heirloom.