A not so miniature miniature

Alec Garrard has spent 30 years working on an amazing model.  It’s a recreation of Herod’s Temple.  This is one of those jaw-dropping models that you just stare at, noticing something new each time you blink.

You can see close up photos and a discussion of Alec’s creation at Mail Online News. Alec suggests something that we miniaturists can relate to quite well when describing what his wife thinks of his project:

‘She wishes she’d married a normal person,’ he said.

Cheers — Larry

More Mini Frames

Recently I posted instructions for making mini-frames for doing petitpoint.  I provided two simple methods that didn’t require fancy tools and that also required  only basic skills.  This sort of thing is often referred to as “teaching them to fish rather than providing the fish.”

But there are some who, for whatever reason, would rather buy frames ready-made.  I can understand that.  The problem is that some things just can’t be handmade and sold at a reasonable price.  These frames may be one of those things.  By the time you add in the costs of padded envelopes, today’s high postage costs and a minimum wage, the price becomes fairly significant for something that takes the place of poking a hole in some mat board (grin).  I have to admit that I do think it brings a touch of class to needlework that mat board can never provide, and while making them I daydreamed of fancy ones with figured wood and inlay in the corners.

And yes,  I did make some.  I decided to make them with good, hard maple.  I also decided to make them using “real”, cut half-lap joinery.  In this way I could be a bit more precise I suppose.  It also meant a whole lot of joint cutting.  Can you spell BORING?  Anyways, here’s the pile of sticks I ended up with after that process.

All of these pieces were glued into 1 1/2″square and 2 1/2″ square frames using hide glue to provide a hard, non-flexing joint.   Then I rounded the corners and sanded them, but only to remove any raised edges.  These frames work best if they’re NOT perfectly smooth as the glue will stick the gauze to them better.

I applied some oil and let them sit over night.  This morning I applied a coat of shellac, trying to strike a balance between protecting the wood and not generating a super-smooth surface, which is counter to the purpose of the frames.  This is the result.

And here’s the deal on selling them.  It would make no sense to sell these individually as shipping costs would make that silly.  So, I’ve clustered them into a package a three frames – two small and one larger.

The small frames are great for doing chair seats, samplers, firescreens, candlestands, pillows and some wall hangings.  The larger one is large enough for, well, larger needlework.  Neither will accommodate a rug.  If you want a set, they are $17USD and this includes shipping costs.  At this point I have only 5 sets but I can make more if I can’t persuade everyone to make their own (sly grin).  Contact me via email if you want a set.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Making a track light pot in SketchUp

Ok..ok…I give.  I once said that I wouldn’t do SketchUp tutorials since there are so many great videos available.  I wish I had a camcorder as I’d be less reluctant to do them.   But I’ve had a lot of people respond to the SketchUp graphic of my kitchen track light

and everyone of those emails asked “How do you make the light?” and some suggested that they thought SketchUp was only good for doing “straight” things.

Clearly this is not the case and so I thought that I’d provide a short discussion of two methods to generate the light pot, which is little more than a hollow cone with a column on top of it.  These methods can be used to create many different shapes.  I’m going to assume you know the dimensions of your light and can translate them to SketchUp lines and shapes.

Method 1: Using the FollowMe Tool

Start by drawing a circle (diameter unimportant) and a rectangle from the center of the circle.  Dimension the rectangle to be the radius and height of your lamp pot.

Next step is to draw, on the rectangle, half the cross-section of the lamp.I’m not sure you can see it as the thickness of my lamp is only 1/32″ but that outline is a set of parallel lines (representing inside and outside surfaces of the lamp pot), and connected at the ends.  This generates a “surface”, not a line, and that is important to the technique.  Notice also that once I’ve drawn this section, I delete the rest of the rectangle.

The rest is simple and downright magical.  You simply select the circle and then choose the FollowMe tool.  With that tool, click on your cross-section surface and you’ll create this:

Not as tough as you thought, is it?  Notice that the form we created is not only hollow as we’d like but there is a thickness modeled.  Time to draw a light bulb (grin).

Method 2: Using the Move tool

With the previous method we generated a form that has a thickness (in my case it was 1/32″) that represents the actual material of the part.  Often, though, you don’t care about this and are more interested in just modeling the surface.  You can use the Move tool to create the lamp pot and the only difference you’ll see is the lack of thickness.

Draw 2 circles, one inside the other.  The outside circle is the diameter of the opening of your light and the inside one is the diameter of the cylinder on top.

Then comes the magic of the Move tool.  Select the inner circle outline.  Then click on the Move tool.  Position the cursor on the circle outline and then, holding the Alt-key down pull upward to whatever the height of your lamp cone is.  You’ll see that the Move tool does what SketchUp calls “AutoFold” and it moves the inner circle up while keeping it connected to the surface between the two circles.  Just like magic, this creates a cone of the proper height and angle.

Then all you have to do is use the Push/Pull tool on the top surface, pulling a cylinder up the height of your lamp cylinder.

If you look at the inside of this lamp you’ll see it looks pretty much like the first one except that there is no thickness to the wall of the lamp.

That’s all there is to it?  Simple, isn’t it?  For instance, draw a simple outline like  use the FollowMe tool (and add a bit of color) and you get this:

Thanks for all your comments.  They are appreciated.  Keep ‘em coming.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Making frames for miniature needlework

The use of needlework to decorate a home was commonplace prior to the 20th Century.  While these days, needlework is hung in frames, it was once used to cover chairs, sofas, and other furniture.  It was used to decorate small chests, fireplace screens and, well, pretty much everything.  And because these earlier periods are very popular periods with miniaturists, there is an active miniature needlework (petitpoint) community.

The typical way of holding silk gauze used as a substrate for petitpoint is thick bristol board with holes cut into it.  Being a wood kind of guy, I thought it better to use wood to build a frame and I did so.  These have become popular with some and recently, in an Internet forum, these frames have become a topic of conversation and people are asking me how to make them.

So, here are two methods.  I’m going to assume a minimum number of tools as many petitpointers are not woodworkers.  These frames are so easy to make, however, that anyone can do it.

Half-lap Joints for Frames

Half-lap joints are easy-to-make and fairly strong joints that are found in all sorts of framed doors. Real-life woodworkers make them by setting a table saw dado blade (a wide blade set) at a height one-half the wood thickness and they cut away a ‘notch’ of wood that is half the depth of the wood and that extends inward from the end of the piece towards the center of the frame piece a distance that is equal to frame piece width. If you do this on both ends of a set of 4 frame pieces, you can assemble overlap a half-lap on one end of a frame piece with the end of another frame piece set 90 degrees to the first piece. Do that a couple more times and you have a full frame.

Making the basic frame pieces

If you own a micro-table saw, making miniature half-lap joints is done the same as you would the full-size joints. If you don’t have a table saw, however, you can use a simple lamination technique to generate half-laps on both ends of frame pieces and I’m going to illustrate two different approaches. One will start with sheet stock and this is the quickest and it will generate the most consistent results. For those who have a hard time cutting long, thin pieces, however, I’m going to illustrate a method that begins with stripwood. In each case I’m going to make a 2 1/5” square frame (inside dimension) and the frame pieces are 1/4” wide.

Frame pieces from sheet stock

To make the frame pieces from sheet stock, start with a piece of 1/16” thick stock. I’m going to use basswood as most people seem to have that readily available. At the risk of stating the obvious, basswood is not balsawood. If I didn’t see those two confused so often in Internet conversations I would take the time to point it out.

Because I want a frame that is 2 1/2” wide on the inside and with frame piece widths of 1/4”, I will need frame pieces that are 2 1/2” plus ½” (2 x 1/4”) or 3” long so cut a piece of sheetwood that is 3” long and around 3-4” wide. You’ll see in a bit why this second dimension doesn’t need to be exact. The second piece needs to be cut to 2 1/2”, the interior dimension of your frame. Make it the same width as the other piece.

Now it’s a very simple matter of gluing these two pieces of wood together, making sure that there is a 1/4” half-lap created on each end of this 3”wide laminated plank.

Once the glue has dried, set up a fence on your saw so that you can cut 1/4” wide by 3” long strips from the sandwich you just created. What you get for your efforts is a bunch of frame pieces with half-laps on each end.

Frame pieces from stripwood

If cutting long, straight cuts is difficult for you, the same parts can be made using pre-cut stripwood, in this case 1/16” x 1/4″ basswood. First step is to cut four, 3” long pieces of wood for each frame you want to make. Then you need to cut four, 3” minus 1/2” (2 x 1/4”), or 2 1/2” pieces. Each of the shorter pieces must be glued to a longer piece, ensuring that there is a 1/4” half-lap at the end of each resultant frame piece. There will be a bit more error in this method but it only requires an Xacto knife or single-edged razor blade.

Frame Assembly

Now that you’ve got the frame pieces made, the rest is a piece of cake, as the half-lap joints should help you create a square frame. I just use Elmer’s Glue-All and check the frames for square using small blocks that I can put inside the frame. Nothing is too critical here, though.

Once the frame joints are dry, use a sanding block to smooth up the outside edges. You might even want to round the corners as I find this keeps threads from getting caught on the corners while I work.

Of course, if you want to impress your friends you can get fancy, build frames from maple, use two different colors of wood (maple and walnut, perhaps), and you can dye or stain them. For a Xmas stocking I made a red frame and it kept me in a jolly mood.

Adding Silk Gauze to the Frame

Most people glue their gauze to cardboard or foamboard and some complain that it tends to come loose. I didn’t know any better so I used a method I’ve used for a lot of other things.

Glue stick glue has a nifty attribute that it will set really well if you iron the joints, so that’s what I do. Run glue stick glue around one side of the frame and start ironing the gauze in place, holding some tension on the gauze so that it is taut as it spans the frame opening. That’s all there is to it. If you do end up with a wrinkle, a bit of rubbing alcohol will loosen the glue and you can iron it back down. Once it’s glued in place, I run a single-edged razor blade around the periphery of the frame, cutting off the excess gauze.

I haven’t had much trouble with the gauze coming loose while I stitch, unstitch (errors… me? Naw, couldn’t be), and re-stitch my way to a completed project. If the gauze does loosen up you can just iron it back down. I did have one corner come up once so I know this works.

If you have any questions, you know where to find me.  If you still don’t want to make your own, let me know and I can make some for you for a modest fee.  For a bit more I can make them from cherry or maple.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Put some teeth into it.

I’ve talked about using bench hooks to help you to use your razor saws to accurately cut full-size and miniature parts.  I showed you how to make a miter box that would really do the job.  But, so far, I haven’t talked about the saws themselves and while people often smugly say “A craftsman never blames his tools”, this phrase misses the point that a craftsman always uses good tools.

And so the time has come for me to spend some time talking about saws.  All too often miniaturists complain that they “can’t cut straight”, “can’t get smooth cuts”, “can’t cut accurately”, or my personal favorite, “just don’t have a knack for woodworking.”  Almost always, the problems can be traced to three things.  These are:

1) Using the wrong saw for the job.

2) Not using a saw guide when one is required.

3) Not having enough practice.

I’ve talked about #2 a bit and #3 is the most interesting but I’ll save that for discussion at a later date.  Today I want to talk about a single aspect of saws that is the most obvious feature of a saw and most ignored feature by many – the teeth.

I could get into discussions of rip, cross-cut, fleam, set and a bunch of other saw jargonese but I’m going to keep this post simple, get to the heart of most problems and just count the teeth.  In short, many people just don’t have enough when doing miniature work.  The reason has to do with a lack of knowledge and where we shop.  You see, the people who shop Home Depot don’t cut wood that’s 1/16″ thick!  Most people wandering hobby shops are cutting wood thicker than this as well.

So what, you say?  Well it’s a big deal.  Imagine trying to cut a board with a saw with one tooth.  Each time the tooth hits the wood there is a jarring ‘crunch’ and some splinters fly out.  Maybe the board moves.  In any case, we’d have an impossible time cutting a straight line and the cut would be anything but smooth. 

Ridiculous you say?  Of course you’re right, but consider your average Xacto saw.  Its stamped metal blade has 20-teeth per inch.  A Home Depot coping saw will have 15-16 teeth per inch.  And the most teeth I’ve ever seen on a pinned (more later) scroll saw blade is 18 teeth per inch.  So, consider cutting 1/16″ wood with these blades.  In point of fact, they all have only one tooth acting on the wood at any point in time.  And yet, it’s common for these saws to be used in the minatures world.  It’s no wonder people run out and buy a wood crusher…err…I mean Easy Cutter.

A rule of thumb in woodworking, that works better than most rules of thumb, is that you want at least 3 teeth in the wood at all times.  In my experience, this is the minimum in miniatures as thin wood works better with more teeth in the wood.  Alas, the thin wood also makes it difficult to meet the 3-teeth criterion.  Imagine cutting 1/16″ wood.  You need a 48-tooth saw to meet this minimum.  Imagine cutting 1/32″ wood.  Now you need a 96-tooth saw to meet the 3-tooth rule.

There are solutions, of course.  You just won’t find them at Home Depot.  Take a look at the photo above.  It shows a typical Xacto saw with my Gyros razor saw (purchased at Woodcraft) laying on top of it.  The gyros saw has 60-teeth and, as you can clearly see, it’s much finer than the Xacto saw.

Jeweler’s saw blades are the same situation and here we’re often in a situation where we’d like to do fretwork on 1/32″ stock and thus require as many teeth as we can throw at the situation.  And yet, most have blades like the one at the bottom of the photo.  Contrast that with the blade mounted in my saw.  It’s a 6-0 blade – very fine and with a LOT of teeth.  These particular blades aren’t available in hobby shops either.  More often than not you find them at places that supply jewelers (there’s a reason these are called jewelers saws).  These come from Widget Supply Company and they have 76 teeth per inch.  Xacto list 6-0 blades but, unfortunately, they only have 50 teeth per inch.  Using these blades is an epiphany for anyone who has struggled to cut fine details with a jeweler saw with hobby shop blades.

Can you have too many teeth in a saw?  Sure, though it’s hard to find the situation in miniatures.  If you’re cutting the walls of a roombox or dollhouse, where the wood is 1/8″ or even 1/4″, the 3-tooth rule would suggest 24 and 12-teeth respectively.  But notice that even at 1/8″ thick, the saws and blades I mentioned early on are still too coarse to work properly.  So, as the title suggests, “Put some teeth into it” and you’ll find sawing more enjoyable and the results more like what you want.  As always, comments are most welcome.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

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