Nick Offerman's Blog, page 6
August 26, 2014
August 25, 2014
Praise the Pinch Dog
If you missed the first post about this project, you can find it here When we left off, Lee and Krys were cutting dados in the edges of these giant triangles to receive splines for the circular glue up. 
Plenty of glue and hefty splines helped to keep all of our radial seams strong, but getting a nice even clamp across the joint while the glue dried required some clamping ingenuity. 
We started by glueing up pairs. Because geometry was on our side, we could flip two unglued wedges to the outside of our center joint to give us parallel clamping surfaces. Here Matty strikes the self satisfied pose of his baller alter ego- MC Pinch Dawg 
We pounded in steel pinch dogs both along the glue seam–to squeeze the glued center wedges together, and along the clamping seam–to keep the outside wedges from sliding when the clamps were tightened. Not trusting the clamps, Matty squeezed tightly for the next two hours until the glue set. 
After we glued up our four initial pairs, we add one more wedge to make the four quarters of our final circle. We use plenty of pinch dogs along the table’s bottom seam as their marks will never be seen. 
On the top surface, we are able to slip some dogs in the pocketed out area which will be covered by the Lazy Susan. Bar clamps do the rest of the squeezing. 
Next, we glue two quarters together to create the halves. Things are starting to get pretty HEAVY–each half weighs around 250lbs at this point. Don’t smile yet Thomas, you’ve forgotten the straps. 
Bar clamps, pinch dogs, and ratchet straps get that seam tight. 
Now for the whole enchilada. Isn’t this fun?! 
Push, pull and pray. 
That’s how you glue up a 500 Lbs, 80″ wide by 6″ thick circle.
The post Praise the Pinch Dog appeared first on Offerman Woodshop.
August 24, 2014
Chop on This
A few weeks back Krys and Matty headed to OWS’s favorite wood supplier, Bohnhoff Lumber, to pick up a few sticks of 8/4 walnut.
The Mission: To create a 42″ by 102″ end grain butcherblock kitchen island. To put this into meat eating perspective, that’s enough space to put 3 whole hogs side by side or 16 average size bratts from end to end. End grain is desirable for a cutting surface as it helps preserve the knifes edge when chopping. It also looks pretty damn cool.
The first step was to mill the rough walnut timber into smaller lengths.
Ours were a little over two inches square. Once Lee did the math on how many lengths were needed Matty went to work on the endless glue-ups.
In order to keep it manageable we glued them up in lengths of 5. There were plenty of clamps and cauls involved to insure the glue joint was tight and the walnut was as level as possible.
Once they dried we put the sets together in another glue-up.
And then we put that glue-up with another glue-up and glued it up. Its a lot of glue-ups! How many times can we say glue-up?
At this point we cross cut on the table saw our new strips at 2 1/2″ to create the end grain lengths.
A sharp blade and plenty of Dri-Cote makes short order of the job.
And then guess what? More glue-ups. This time with the end grain facing up.
Again, we started with smaller sets and built them up from there.
Fortunately Matty has hands of leather so the clamping all day isn’t a problem.
After more and more glue ups…
We finally have our final dimension butcher block.
But we aren’t done. Oh no! Not even close.
Lee designed the outer edge of the piece to be wrapped in reclaimed oak with the original rough sawn patina on the outer perimeter. So once again, with tears in his eyes, Matty got out the glue.
It only took a few clamps.
Stay tuned for more on this project as we begin to build the base.
The post Chop on This appeared first on Offerman Woodshop.
A few little sticks
About a year ago, back when the winters were cold, a friend of ours gutted an old guitar factory wherein to build himself a humble home. Being very environmentally minded, he saved us a few little sticks from the old building and asked us to make him a small table on which to eat his meat stuffs. Nick returned from the construction site with this modest cargo.
With a little help from the ancient Egyptians, the Ford S250, and Josh’s huge guns, we were able to unload and stack the new sticks in our shop…
…where they would then marinate in the juices of creative potential and neglect for many months to come.
One Year Later:
Now the winter is balmy, the dainty design is agreed upon, the new house is being warmed, and our muscles are properly developed after a year of rigorous training. Now we are finally ready to make our first cuts.
As a nod to their original purpose (and because we are a little insane), we have decided to keep all of the timbers at their full thickness (a whopping 6 3/4″). Which means our options for cutting, shaping, and joining said timbers are limited to this crude & powerful farm tool,
the 24″ Laguna bandsaw,
the human flattener,
and the framing chisel/bicep combo.
We are making a 80″ diameter circle table top comprised of twelve 30 degree triangles. Getting really nice flat and square edges on these triangles is crucial for our glue up, but due to the thickness of the material and the limitations of our machinery, achieving this precision has proven challenging. So we initially spent a good amount of time trying, making, failing, correcting, and moving these beefy wedges all around the shop while Nick serenaded us with uplifting songs about drinking.
AND THEN, with a little help from the invaluable network of fellow woodworkers, we discovered a neighboring shop with this baddass rig–a 13″ blade on a table saw with a sliding angled fence and bed. With this set-up we could finally achieve the accuracy we require.
Thank God for our new friend Eric Lammers and his shop full of enormous machines!
Behold, twelve equal triangles perfectly arrayed around a center point.
Now, what kind of base supports such a beast of a table top?
Why, a beefy beast of a trestle! (and some Johnny Cash covers)
Notice we work in twos on most aspects of this production. This is only to increase our accuracy, not because we are at all “un-beefy”.
(Matt–come back. Please?)
Once the basic shapes are cut (yes, that’s a 10″ jigsaw blade–what?), we will now begin to mill the three connecting stretchers (Douglas Fir 4×10 timbers from the same demolition). We’ll also attempt to glue up this massive circle, using splines to align the wedges and support the seams. Here we cut the dados for the spline joints.
Which leaves us at the current stage of creative chaos. Stay tuned! And grab a broom while you’re at it.
See the next steps of this project here
The post A few little sticks appeared first on Offerman Woodshop.
August 22, 2014
Azumaya
We have been busy this Fall building ‘Azumaya’–a Greene & Greene inspired pergola for the Japan House gardens at the University of Illinois (Nick’s alma mater). Azumaya was designed in honor of, and in collaboration with Nick’s sensei, Shozo Sato. It was built here at Offerman Woodshop in Los Angeles, and shipped to Champaign Illinois where it was installed by Nick, Lee, some of Nick’s old theater friends from his college days, and an invaluable crew of local woodworkers from the CU woodshop.
Azumaya was built from reclaimed old-growth redwood timbers from McMullin Sawmill: this pile here is only a third of the total materials used.
Our first and most crucial task was to lay out our perfect hexagon–the basis for all our joinery.
It took a couple tries, and a lot of help from google sketchup, Lee’s dad (skyped in), and our multi-talented webmaster and resident geomotry wiz, RonJOn
Once the hex shape was determined, Michele and Matty laid out the oversized beams in order to transfer the joinery locations.
Michele is the brains…
… Matty is the brawn.
Cutting the beams to length,
the shoulders on the angled lap joints,
while Nick joyfully establishes the male tenon.
Meanwhile, in the other corner of our shared parking lot…
Thomas and Lee attempt to build a 35 foot compass to lay out the arc of the roof beams. It didn’t work very well, but Thomas’ awesome farmer’s tan made it well worth the effort.
Using a canoe strip as a batten to trace the arc onto a template proved to be much more accurate.
Success! Now all we have to do is cut various seemingly arbitrary compound angles on every curved and flat edge…
for which Thomas devises this ridiculous maneuver …
…resulting in this simple joint (the tip of the roof).
Time to lay out the beams to test our joinery and fit the roof.
It takes a little persuasion from the dead blow,
and encouragement from the ratchet straps…
Question: How many woodworkers does it take to assemble a 12′ hexagonal roof?
Answer: One Offerman, or 4 of these jokers.
To our great excitement, the six seams of the roof assembly hit the hexagon corners within a ‘bee’s dick’* of perfection!
*Ronny taught us this Australian term for the kind of tolerance we strive for here at OWS
Thats right.
While the rest of us do all the heavy lifting, Josh has been quietly building the seating for Azumaya: a redwood bench that sits in the center of the structure. Here he routs out channels in the redwood root base to accept the oak support braces.
This redwood burl slab was attached to those supports–creating the bench seat. Josh then finishes it with kick ass Boonville beer.
This slab is pretty much the dopest slice of delicious steak we have ever resisted eating.
Back in the brutal LA sunshine, Krys works on a nice mid-calf tan, while milling up all of the roofing planks.
After routing all the tongue and grooves, Matty cuts the planks oversized…
To be fit in place by these two hunks.
Thomas trims the roofing planks down at some other incomprehensible angle.
We leave some planks off so that the roof assembly can be hoisted up over the posts by forks and slings when it gets to Illinois.
These are the corbels, which, along with some curved braces, will attach the posts to the beams.
Like so…
These are some pretty design details, so they require a ‘high art’ photo filter.
Nick is overcome with joy after fitting his ebony plugs
And, back to low art
Krys helps by drilling out the metal post anchors and by keeping the positivity high during the sleepless final hours.
This is how you ship a 3000 lbs, 12′x12′x12′ pergola across the country. (Daniel Wheeler on the toy fork lift).
It goes on the truck in Los Angeles…
…and comes off the truck 5 days later in snowy Champaign.
Shozo waits for us on the concrete pad he laid weeks before to be the floor of Azumaya.
First thing we do is lay out the hex, this time with glue in the joints. Nick’s technical theater hero, Ken Egan, attaches the slings so we can lift up the hex and attach the posts in place.
Then everyone grabs a post and does a little circle dance.
We got it where we want it, each post sits nicely inset on the concrete pad.
The roof gets unpacked and bolted back together. A job for the limberest of men.
Now its time to raise the roof.
What?! Ryan Schriefer and Nick Jeurissen drive the forklift with mad skill.
Indar. It was together by lunch time. Which, by the way, was delicious, hot, home-made Japanese cuisine provided by the ever hospitable Japan House staff.
All of those compound angles paid off.
Ken, Lee, & Shozo triumphant.
Time to finish that roof.
Nick flies in just in time for shingling and varnishing.
Nick’s powers of levitation help him reach the fascia with ease.
Ken, Nick & Rob Ek discuss their exploits of the late 80′s while they work
Shingled,
Corbelled,
mignoned,
and complete.
Post by Lee, 2013
The post Azumaya appeared first on Offerman Woodshop.
August 21, 2014
August 20, 2014
August 19, 2014
Nick Offerman's Blog
- Nick Offerman's profile
- 1836 followers
