Woodworking with James Santhon

Looking back at 2011

2011-12-31T13:39:00.000-08:00

2011 was quite a year for yours truly. We started out on a very high note in January by having the 34 Ford Woodie we worked on for so long place first in the Street Wagon class at the Grand National Roadster Show in Pomona. Quite an honor considering how many cars that there were in that show. Check out photo 222 in the 2011 indoor gallery on the Grand National Roadster Show's web site.

In March I hit a very low note in that my younger brother Richard passed away. I kind of lost interest in posting any blogs here, so that is why this blog sort of stagnated.
    In June I had another high note in that I was invited to host a discussion panel at the American Associaton of Woodturners symposium in St. Paul Minnesota. On that panel there were two other master turners speaking; Jerry Kermode of Santa Cruz California, and Mark Supik of Baltimore Maryland. Our subject was called the Unknown Woodturner, and it was basically about architectural woodturning. We had a great time.
    In that same month I also taught a woodturning class at William Ng's School for Fine Woodworking, and I also posted a woodturning video on Youtube.com. Be sure to check it out. It is called turning a goblet with James Santhon.
     I ended the year on a sour note, but I'm alive and well, and somewhat in my right mind. Hopefully, I'll have more to offer you in the way of projects in this coming year.
    Have a Happy New Year!

A Day at the Wavecrest Woody Meet in Encinitas

2010-09-18T16:30:00.001-07:00

We actually made it to the Wavecrest Woody meet after all, and what a day it was. Dante Senese, the owner of the 1934 Ford Woody, that we have been working on for the last five years, had stayed up until 2:30 in the morning working on getting all of the last minute details taken care of, and then he was up at 4:00 in the morning to transport the car to Encinitas.

There were plenty of woodies on hand for the biggest woody meet of all, and our baby fit right in with the best of them.

All the hard work was worth it. The car generated a lot of interest, and it was a lot of fun talking with all the folks who came by to take a look.

One of the folks who came by to see us was Mr. Doug Carr of the Wood n' Carr restoration company, and one of the top woody guys around. He, and another judge awarded us the "Wood n' Carr" trophy for "Outstanding Woody" of 2010.

What a nice way to end the day, and not bad for the first time out with a car that had never been seen before.
In the parlance of the surfer/woody enthusiast, we were really stoked! And, kind of excited too.

More of the Wavecrest Woody Meet Debut

2010-09-18T16:09:00.000-07:00

An insiders view of the festivities going on at the Wavecrest Woody meet in Encinitas.

The new upholstery, and carpeting look great.

A little leather, anyone?

Here we have the owner of the 34 Woody, Mr. Dante Senese, and also my employer, modeling for the camera.

Here I am getting in on some of the modeling action too.

Wave Crest Crunch Time

2010-08-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

It's baaaack. Finally, but there is still some work to do to get this baby ready for the Wave Crest Woody meet in Encinitas in September.

Take it from me this bad girl is totally awesome. She purrs like an angry kitten, and all she needs now is the vinyl top, upholstery, and all the little diddly dos to have her ready for the big show.

I can't tell you how excited we are now that we're closing in on the finish line. The folks over at Ressurection Auto have done a great job getting it painted, wired, and ready to roll.

If you see this rear end cruisin down I 5 in September be sure to give her a wolf whistle, and a honk. I know she'll appreciate it.

Aaaaahhhh, California Dreamin. Ain't it nice.

37 Ford Woody's West Coast Debut

2010-03-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been awhile since I finished repairing, and refinishing this baby, but after a visit to the outfitters for a new vinyl top, and being rewired she finally made her west coast debut at the Wave Crest Beach Cruiser Car Show in Huntington Beach on March 27th, 2010.

Originally this car was from upstate New York, and had been kept in a barn on an estate there until being purchased by my employer.
She was a real cream puff mechanically, but needed some serious love and care, which I have written about in an older post.

Did I say cream puff? Well, sitting next to it is the antithisis of cream puff.
The signs on the windshields say before, and after, but the green one on the left never fell into this kind of disrepair thankfully.

There is some talk that this could be one of my next projects. Do you think I have my work cut out for me, or am I in some serious hot water here?

Believe it or not, this car still runs, but it has some serious wood issues that need to be addressed not to mention paint and body issues as well.

In any case this was a fun show, and both cars were a hit with all of the enthusiasts present.

Please note that you can enlarge any of the photos on this site simply by clicking on them.

34 Ford Woody Project Revisited

2010-01-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

This car has been a long time in the making, and the end is in sight. It started out as a project someone else had started, and given up on. Someone had turned an original 34 Ford Woody into a hot rod, which to some people could be considered a sacrilege, but we took the ball where it lay, and ran with it. This picture was taken just after all of the new wood was assembled.

The subsequent posts on this blog site detail most of the work that went into this car, but I just wanted to add these previous photos to show some contrast to this blog.

The interior of the car is very warm looking with the slatted roof, coved molding, and precision fitted panels.

I don't know about you, but when I see something beautiful going down the street I always check out the rear end, and this one is quite nice.

Quite a difference. Please continue to the posts below for some more fun.

34 Ford Woody Station Wagon

2010-01-22T17:36:00.000-08:00

The previous entry just didn't have enough pictures, so I had to post another blog to get these pictures in. Click on the photo to see the birdseye maple close up. Wow!

The wooden body assembly starts with these two pieces of wood. The running board rail, and center post. The Center Post is bolted to the frame, and to the metal front seat housing. The center post is also mortised into the running board rail with a bolt running through the rail, and the tenon of the center post.

Then the wheel well frame is attached, and then the rear quarter panel. After that was done, the roof was put on. Of course it didn't fit the first time because there was some welding to the cowling that slightly changed the fit, but with a handy block plane it was made to fit in no time at all. Yeah right.

Here is a rear view of the car with newly added dual exhausts. For you Ford purists you will note that we stayed true to all of the shapes of the molding, and even though the car is a hot rod, all of the latches, and brackets are all original as is the car. It is not a kit, but an actual 34 Ford Woody.

This was my first attempt at making a woody, and there were a lot of lessons learned, but it was a lot of fun, and hard work. We did make enough wooden parts for two 34 woodys, which is good, because the next one will be arriving soon, and this time it will be totally stock. Be sure to look at some of my previous entries to see some of the fabrication methods used in the making of this wonderful car.

34 Ford Woody Update (Almost there)

2010-01-22T16:57:00.000-08:00

Finally, the 34 Ford Woody has come back from the paint shop, and the excitement is beginning to build around the shop. The car was totally disassembled, and the metal body was removed from the frame, and painted. The body was re-fastened, and sent back to me to assemble the wood body.

Every part that was removed during the disassembly of the wooden body was cataloged, and put into separate bin. For example there were bins for each door, for the roof, for the tailgate etc. We had all of the original metal parts such as roof brackets, door mechanisms, and latches powder coated a light tan color.

The wooden body was totally disassembled, the plywood door panels taken out, the molding removed, and every piece was varnished individually.

After varnishing with Petit Marine Spar Varnish, the varnish was allowed to cure for three months, after which, all of the parts were wet sanded with mineral spirits up to 2000 grit wet dry sand paper, and then polished with rubbing compound, and then rubbed with swirl removing glaze. Then all of the parts were reassembled awaiting the arrival of the freshly painted chassis.

Anytime you take something apart for some reason it doesn't always go back together the same way, but after a bunch of tweaking, and a few swear words, the car is back together, and on it's way back to the body shop for final details like a vinyl top, air conditioning, wiring, a few body adjustments, and then it will be show time. I will have another installment with the finished product in the near future. Be sure to click on the pictures for a larger view, because the birdseye maple will blow your mind.

37 Ford Woody Estate Wagon

2009-09-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

This is a 1937 Ford Woody Station Wagon that needed the door panels replaced, repairs to water damaged parts, and to be refinished. The trim over the back part of the rear fender had to be replaced from the finger joint back to the rear post. Both rear posts along with the aprons over the windows of the rear quarter panels, and tail gate needed replacement as well. The outside rails of the top were severly water damaged along with one side of the interior cove molding along the inside of the top, and were also replaced. Click on the picture to get a closer look. On this side of the car the front stile of the rear door needed to be replaced. The original door panels had been replaced with mahogany panels, and the new owner wanted them to be maple, so those were remade. We probably should have replaced the old fart to the right of the car also, but we felt sorry for him.

Looking into the car you can see the coved molding along the inside of the top. The one on the right had had a mickey mouse repair job, and needed to have the whole piece replaced from the door post back to the rear.

In order to replace the rear part of the fender trim it was necessary to disassemble the entire car, which was the most difficult task of all as every screw, and bolt was inundated with rust. There was a lot of swearing involved in that operation, but eventually they all came loose.

After the car was disassembled, and repaired then came the stripping, bleaching, and varnishing. We sprayed on Petit Marine Varnish, and wet sanded between coats. A total of seven coats were applied after which it was color sanded starting with 1000 grit wet dry sand paper, and going up to 2000 grit then polished with rubbing compound. After it was rubbed out with the rubbing compound a swirl removing glaze was used to remove any rubbing marks, and then it was finished off with clear carnauba wax.

This car was a warm up for the 34 Woody Project that is still under way. The 34 has been varnished, but needs to be color sanded, rubbed out, and reassembled. The metal body also still needs to be painted, but hopefully in the near future I will be able to post the finished project on this blog.

Orange County Fair

2009-06-21T09:06:00.001-07:00

The Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa starts on July 10th 2009, and the Orange County Woodworkers Association will be presenting it's tenth annual Fine Art Woodworking Show at the Fair in Building #15.

As President of the OCWA I am very proud of our association's efforts to promote the art of woodworking to the general public through this event at the fair. There will be approximately 175 entries in the show this year by some of the finest craftspersons around. We will also have woodworking demonstration booths for your entertainment, and education.

I will personally be demonstrating goblet turning on the lathe on the weekends except for July 25th, and 26th, when I will be teaching a two day woodturning class at the William Ng School of Fine Woodworking. If you wish to register for that class please see wnwoodworks.com. Goblet turning is a lot of fun, but as you can see it can be a little tricky. In this picture I am turning the stem of the goblet. I turn about 3/4" of the stem at a time, and sand it. I stay close to the large mass of wood to keep stability, so as to not break the stem. That would be a drag.
Here I have completed the goblet, and I am sanding the base prior to parting the goblet off.

I am using the gouge here to part off the goblet. The reason for using a gouge is so I can put a decorative detail on the bottom. This much more difficult than using a parting tool, which, in my opinion is a very crude way of parting off the goblet as it leaves a rough surface behind.

Here I have parted off the goblet deftly catching it with my left hand. If you click on the picture you will be able to see the decorative detail that I have put on the bottom.

Here is the finished product. I have been known to give these away to guests that have had the time to watch the entire demo, which is about thirty minutes. The OCWA Secretary, Mr. Ed Straub, has accused me of giving preferential treatment to cute young blondes when it comes to giving away the goblets, but that simply just isn't the case though it couldn't hurt your chances if you were. In any case Ed has received a number of these goblets, and he is neither young nor cute.

Be sure to join us at the fair, you'll have a great time.

34 Ford Woody Project

2009-05-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

This first shot is of the front door of the 34 Ford Woody project that I have been working on for the past two years. As you can see we used some very figured, and beautiful Birdseye Maple wood for the door frames, rear quarter panel frames, and the tailgate frame. The plywood panels were purposely chosen to have a plain grain, so as to add some contrast to the birdseye.

We used Bass wood for the slats pictured here. Note the round plug on the side rail of the top. There is a T-Nut at the bottom of that hole to receive a bolt that attaches the wooden top to the metal frame of the wind sheild. The wooden plug not only fills the hole, but it also keeps the T-Nut from coming loose.

The outer side rails of the top are screwed to the interior coved side rails using stainless steel screws. Then the outer rails were shaped with a grinder, finished up with a hand plane, and hand sanded.

The only parts on the car that were actually glued were the curved frames around the fender wells, and the stiles for the front doors of the car.

Here is a close up of finger joints that were used in putting the curved frames together. There are also some finger joints on the front doors, and on the top.

Fabrication Methods

2009-05-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

This nasty looking thing is a finger joint cutter. To say that I didn't feel a little anxeity while I was making these joints would be a fabrication. Pun intended.

Here you can see that I had to clamp the sides of the car to a spacer board that is cut to the exact interior size. The ribs of the top are sitting on top of the side rails to line them up with the door, and rear quarter panel stiles. The reason they have to line up is that this car has curtains instead of glass for the windows, and there are brass tracks that the curtains ride in. Opening the windows of the car entail sliding the curtains up the tracks on the doors into the tracks that are attached to the ribs of the top, so it is important that they line up. Note the dados on the stiles. The brass tracks are inserted into those dados.

Here the interior top side rails are clamped down to the mortising machine. The mortises will receive the tenons of the top ribs.

Here the ribs have been inserted into the mortises, and have a set screw from the top of the rail to hold them in place. Then the spacer templates are removed.

A lot of Hard Work

2009-05-14T16:05:00.000-07:00

This is a photo of the interior coved top rail of the top laying next to the original. There wasn't much left of the original after seventy-five years of termites, and moisture damage.

In this photo you can see that we used the original parts to help in lining up the mortises for the top ribs.

This is the front part of the interior coved top rail. It had to be hand done, because the cove comes to an end at the front, and because it is also angled from the rest of the top rail as it returns to the windsheild. It also has a finger joint where it attaches to the rest of the top rail. The rest of the top rail was coved with a Williams and Hussey molder machine.

I used a Clifton 2" convex spoke shave to cove the front part of the top rail.

In the beginning of this project there were a lot of obstacles such as parts that had been eaten away by termites. Trying to match these parts was a bit problematic as you can see by some of these photos. You can see that I was able to use these parts to line up the mortises, but I did have to use some archive photos to try and match the parts.

To be sure, there was a lot of hand work on this project.

2009-05-14T15:57:00.000-07:00

The 34 Woody Project

2009-05-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

This 34 Ford Woody was purchased after someone had already turned it into a hot rod. The original wood had been ruined by weather, termites, and by sandblasting.

The top had a number of horriffic repairs done to it, such as using two by fours for the side rails. It was a total mess.

The decision was made to totally re-make all of the wood parts, and to use Birdseye Maple on the doors, side panels, and tailgate. Regular Maple was used on the side rails of the top with Bass wood for the slats. What you see in the photo is the completion of the woodwork prior to varnishing.