Ratka's Sewing caddy finished

Gratuitous photos








A gap exists between the frame and the base of the sewing machine on the right there to allow for the power cord.










I included a little bubingawood letter opener attached to the roof here as a joke, we'll see when she notices it, hehehe

Getting a handle of it

More head scratching; surely there is a better way to center some holes in this carcass than my half arsed hairy eyeballing.

here are the reinforcment bearings out of mahogany for the handle arm pivots. There's a pair on the inside of the sarcofagus, too. Oak pegs drilled and tapped into the assembly reinforce


Now rotating the hadle and arm assembly clamped together through the arc of the bearings. Just want to test to see how out of coplanar the opposing sides are. Seems I can compromise to a certain extent at a consistent width, give or take.




Tapped some bubinga wedges into the oak doweling shaft when I finally glued the arms to the shaft. Should help lock it into place and look kinda cool, too.



Testing fitment of the handle with the arms again, this time with tenons cut into the handle. I think I'll drive another pin through the tenon on the outside of the arm to lock it into place when I finally glue this part up. For now, just testing. And I'll have a 3/8" washer on the interior backed by a cotter key going through the shaft to keep the arms in place when it's all said and done...


...On second thought, I can secure the arms from the inside just using a wood screw like so

strong arm

More time spent shaping the mahogany arms for the handle. Yep, another test in precision. First getting orthogonal holes drilled into the arms for the axle without a drill press! Dowling jig to the (approximate) rescue. And again with drilling pilot holes for tenon of handle. Now! How to make sure these bearings through the hull are collinear? Hmmm.. will have to think on this one...

sussing out a handle

A simple but sturdy handle for Ratka's sewing caddy. I tested 1/2" thick mahogany with a 3/8" oak dowel for sheer strength by holding onto the mahogany piece suspended while the protruding dowel hooked the edge of a stud in the garage wall. Should be sturdy enough for the pivoting arms. Then through-tennons holding the horizontal member to the pivoting arms, probably made of this fine old doug-fir i resawed here a while ago. Cardboard mockup of pivot arms below to test proportions...





I got these nice cast-off pieces of African Mahogany from the local hardwood place. Very handsome and a true joy to work with. These will be the "arms" connecting the handle to the carcass

Now the Fun Part

Planing the contours into the top of Ratka's sewing caddy was a joy.



Just roughing out the lines here for final glueup. Will continue shaping until I'm happy and there is no more tear-out in the wood.

lateralized capstone

As expected, this was the most challenging facet to arrange in the top. The side piece wedges will then be the last hard part in this roof.

Handy Bits

My favorite part has been repurposing the mahogany from Ratka's old sewing machine bench legs into small details of the new piece. It's a very well behaved wood and has a scent that I've taken a liking to.

E.g. the "daggers" securing the undercarriage to the sarcophagus needed some sort of tab for easier handling. To wit, I resawed some of this nice old wood and made a pair of little doo-dads for easy grabby: