Joinery Works Drawing

[Gigí Ruais]

Allof us can learn to draw. We all have the ability. What we need to understand is that to do this as woodworkers we do not need to draw like Leonardo do Vinci. We need to draw just well enough to put the image down.

These are the ideas you uploaded years ago; it takes the filing system in the back of your head a while to get to them. A second day at the problem will usually drop ideas off the end of your pencil that will surprise you.

But the brain works a bit like a computer. Rubbish in, rubbish out. It demands that you put down a powerful vocabulary of strong visual images to draw upon. Then all sorts of new and interesting ideas come together.

CAD is a great tool in the process of developing an idea, but it is fundamentally uncreative. I have a friend who works in the Audi design centre; she tells me all the concept work there is still paper and pencil. The great architect David Chipperfield has a studio marked with an absence of computer screens and an overwhelming presence of models of buildings being developed in a series of iterations.

I set up a drawing session once with students ranged all-around a bicycle. One guy was looking right down the side of the bike; all he could see was the tire and handlebars. What he drew was not what he saw, but a full-on-side view of a bike. This was the symbol of a bike his left brain provided him with. Shut this side of the brain down; the visual holistic and music centres of the brain are all in the right side of the head. Let them work.

Drawing is not just for woodworkers but it does make us all better makers. And you can learn it. I boasted once that I could teach a house brick to draw; that was a vain boast. The house brick has to really want to learn to draw.

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A drawing rod can be draw on a piece of hardboard ,MDF, ply, or even lining paper used on wallpaper hanging. Hardboard, MDF,and ply can be painted white so can be used again. A rod basically a full size drawing of a piece of joinery like a window or a door. You can offer your timber directly on the rod and transfer marks to timber like shoulder lines.

file attached pdf of drawing rod

Thanks Jonathan and Mark, that is very interesting. I have never heard of or seen that before. Like Brett, I have heard of and used Story Sticks, but that is not quite the same thing shown in your attachment.

This picture inludes the lower right hand corner of a rod I drew recently

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For this coffer chest

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Seen here complete and painted up

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Here is a picture of a complete rod I drew a fortnight or so ago for a 3 legged cricket table

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And the complete table, painted and waxed (the smaller one on the left-I ommitted the lower rails in the end

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Very good Jonathan good use of rod. The correct way to do things. Very nice pieces of work too ?

I only have a shed to work in and no space at all. I change pieces all the time till I get what I want by my eye. So a rod for me would go out the window.

If I was to make something a certain size that was critical I probably would do a rod.

I guess the ultimate version of the joiners (or carpenters) rod is in the French Scribe timber framing tradition where they literally draw a full 1:1 scale drawing of the structure (eg a roof truss, or gable wall for a building) on the floor, and use it to position the beams for marking out the joints. If they need say 5 trusses, they simply use the same drawing 5 times. Another fascinating feature of that type of joinery is that it works with timber that is wany, bowed, twisted, or rough hewn with an axe etc. Despite those defects, the joints still come out solid, with tight shoulders, and the beams end up with a good flat face to the outside of the building.

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This Drawing Rod reminds me of when I would build RC Airplanes out of balsa. I would roll out the plans on an old door, covering with waxed paper then pin and glue it together right on top of the plans.

Now, I use SketchUp on every project and incorporate the drawings into the job for approval. It works out great because I can figure out the details at home and not make any dust or noise. It helps me design the job, make sure everything will fit together and work mechanically, and I use it to dimension parts, which it does semi-automatically and with good control.

Another great feature of SketchUp is the component warehouse. This is a spot where drawings hang out just waiting to be used. Here is how it works: Say you are drawing a kitchen, and you would like to show a refrigerator in the corner. In the past, somebody (meaning you) would have to draw it. Not anymore my friend. Just pop in the warehouse, find a refrigerator that you like and paste it into your drawing. The drawings in the warehouse are either uploaded by everyday users of SketchUp or, as is more commonly the case, by manufacturers that want you to spec their product. It is not uncommon for me to find every appliance perfectly drawn and ready to be inserted (for free) into my drawing.

We offer local high-grade hardwood lumber milled by us. All lumber is rough sawn with surfacing available at the standard shop rate. We have green lumber, air-dried and kiln dried lumber as well as lower grades available. Because we love wood, we have a lot of very interesting stock. From spalting, to curly grain as well as wacky shaped pieces and unbelievably gorgeous slabs.

Here are some drawings from my journal re the workbench details. The sizes may need changing according to the resource of your materials, and also, you may want to change the size according to your creative workspace and so on. It is not so much definitive but clay on the wheel for you to work to as needed and shape and mould as necessary.

Here is the main leg frame assembly showing details of the tenons I used. You may want to change the details of the protruding tenon, but I prefer the Arts and Crafts roundover. which is fast and easy to achieve with a #4 bench smoother. The others we will show you how to form on the Youtube video soon.

A dovetailed cross rail works better; a dovetail at each end of the cross-rail into the top of the leg. One screw through the middle of the dovetails into the top of the leg secures as well if wanted or preferred.

Yes it does. You will have your tools closer when working on single boards, which usually do not require a lot of depth, but when you do work across the bench, you will still have support for your piece on the other side of the tool tray. This is also true during glueups. It also still has the advantage that you can remove it for clamping, and lessening wood movement on your two bench tops, since they are not joined together, but individually fastened to the framework.

For one I would never lay my planes on their side, I just scoot them off to my right at the far end and that leavers the bench free enough for 99 percent of my working. As to depth, an inch and a half is deep enough for most of the tools I like closer in so by that I mean chisels, chisel hammer, square, sliding bevel, screwdrivers and such Some of these are the ones that can roll off onto the floor on a plain flat top. You can of course gain depth by thinning down the well board but the gain is so minimal I question its real validity. Again, I cannot see the point in a removable well board. It overcomplicates what is perfectly simple. You simple brush out the sawdust to one end into a dustpan or bin.

Hello Paul, I would like to thank you for your generosity and kindness in showing your hand skills and knowledge of wood working to everyone, myself included.

Although I am approaching 60 years of age I find myself staying up late at night to watch you build your traveling work bench. I intend to make my much needed bench as you have, hopefully, so that I can make the interior doors to my home, and a nice exterior front door.

Thank You Kindly and Take Care, Michael

I have always pur vices on the left. I am sure that this comes from school. Benches had vices on left and a planing stop on the right. Even thpough I am right handed I can plane either left or right handed.

What a joy to watch the bench build: I was glued to the screen. After watching some of your joinery videos I feel I may actually have a chance at doing it myself. I always felt that hand made joints were the secret domain of master carpenters. I am looking forward to building my own workbench in the near future and am looking for a hand plainer and a set of chisels. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Your instruction is awesome. Thanks Ron\b

This is going sound fanciful, but I would like the challenge of using no metal fasteners on my bench. This seems easy enough with attaching the apron to the legs by boring holes and using dowels and glue instead of bolts, but I had a couple questions about attaching the top. I was thinking of losing the bearer board and laminating three pieces of wood together (as opposed to two) with the middle board longer to form a tenon. I would then chop a through mortise in the top for each of the leg tenons. I would further secure this apron/top/leg tenon stack-up with a dowel or two.

Not really. Drilling and gluing dowels means any apron shrinkage will result in cracks in the apron. The tenon through the top will work but again there will be shrinkage and expansion around the tenon resulting in either protrusion or recess in the bench top surface.

Hi Paul, Loving your Working Wood 1& 2 dvd series and book. I have a comment on vice placement. Is there a historical reason that the vice is placed to the bottom left of the table? I have seen a number of other tables, and it seems that many others focus on the same location. (Assuming right handed)

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