Thread: Its plenty long but not wide enough

Make the end blocks in two pieces. It won't matter as you trim the bottom bit off after assembly.

And a join in the foot won't be seen from above.

I dont think youll have a problem sticking with the plan and doing a long-grain join so that the endpieces and feet can be cross cut from a piece of glued-up stock. A good glue joint should be stronger then the timber around it - doubly so with splitty timbers like wenge. There is a risk of the glue joint parting, as it is a very short joint, but its no greater then the risk of the pieces breaking along the natural grain (careful handling needed).

Going the other way (ie ripping the stock) will mean that the grain travels across the little fingers. As these are only 6mm wide then they will be extremely fragile, and some will probably even snap off as you machine them. The fingers must go along the grain.

Wenge is expensive. Im surprised they didnt use black walnut.

Arron

Thanks for the advice.

I have let the glued Maple dry for a day and a half and tomorrow I will try working on it.

If it breaks, I will revert to the two sections suggested, although the Wenge will be 3 or 4.

Another option would be to use a scarf Joint. This will greatly enlarge the glue surface area. Also, I would make the cross section in one piece & then cut them into 3 as the final operation.


Steve

Another **** &&&& expletive, loads of four letter words, has developed.

I don't know if it is something I am doing wrong or the timber is the problem.

I am trying to router out 1/4 inch slots for the base. They need to go into the timber to 12mm. I am doing them in small passes, about 3mm at a time. However, the **** timber keeps breaking. See the attached picture, its shows all. Its Wenge, (and what looks like grey is actually black and has been caused by flash bounce back.)

Looks like the problem is the timber. I reckon you're gonna be hard pressed to get them to stay in one piece.

Ticky's suggestion might help - machine them in one piece, then cut into three. That's the way I'd handle it at this point.
Even smaller router bites might help, too.

Originally Posted by TORB

Another **** &&&& expletive, loads of four letter words, has developed.

I don't know if it is something I am doing wrong or the timber is the problem.

I am trying to router out 1/4 inch slots for the base. They need to go into the timber to 12mm. I am doing them in small passes, about 3mm at a time. However, the **** timber keeps breaking. See the attached picture, its shows all. Its Wenge, (and what looks like grey is actually black and has been caused by flash bounce back.)

Ric, I don't know how you are holding the timber you are routing but is it possible to clamp the piece of timber between two pieces of half inch pineboard or ply so that it is good and solid to run the router through, then you shouldn't get breakout like that?

Colin.

and possibly go as far as gluing the pine onto the wenge (use a layer of paper as a bond breaker and saw all but .1mm of the pine backing off after all the machining - sand the last little bit

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

The way I had it set up was four lengths back to back that was then backed by a bit of scrap wood. All four bits had damage, but the two back bits were not quite as bad, but still pretty messy.

A sacrificial bit at the front as well is worth a try. I will try to clamp it all together but if that does not work, I can use some strong double sided tape to hold all the bits together. That may be easier to manage than clamping as I am using an Incra Jig and Original Fence combo.

Cheers
Ric

I have now come to the conclusion that, not to put to fine a point on it, the Wenge is stuffed!

I used two pieces of scrap hard wood as front and backing support and clamped it tiger tightly. First cut terrific! Second cut. Stuffed two of the four work pieces.

The timber has tiny cracks all through it, and I think that's the problem.

Edit
I tried the same technique using a different type of timber and the result was perfect.

Originally Posted by TORB

I have now come to the conclusion that, not to put to fine a point on it, the Wenge is stuffed!

I used two pieces of scrap hard wood as front and backing support and clamped it tiger tightly. First cut terrific! Second cut. Stuffed two of the four work pieces.

The timber has tiny cracks all through it, and I think that's the problem.

Edit
I tried the same technique using a different type of timber and the result was perfect.

Shame about the Wenge

Might be an idea now to try Arron's suggestion of Walnut and see how that goes.

Colin

Originally Posted by chippy 71

Shame about the Wenge

Might be an idea now to try Arron's suggestion of Walnut and see how that goes.

Colin

Yeah, I thought it was just too crumbly. A shame, as you say. Would have looked great, but so will Walnut.

Originally Posted by TORB

I have now come to the conclusion that, not to put to fine a point on it, the Wenge is stuffed!

I used two pieces of scrap hard wood as front and backing support and clamped it tiger tightly. First cut terrific! Second cut. Stuffed two of the four work pieces.

The timber has tiny cracks all through it, and I think that's the problem.

OK given that the wenge you have is stuffed, you coul try prefinishing the wenge with the hard clear finish used by turners (Cyno Acrolate?) to see if that stabilises the cracks.

Floodfilling with CA will, in most likelihood, hold it together... but it severely restricts your choice of final finish.

Basically: to more CA... and getting a good CA finish on flatwork is a long, painful task. (There's a reason it's usually only used on small turned items. )

Personally, I suspect that even if the fingers hadn't broken off during routing, they'd probably break off with day-to-day use of the trivet anyway. You really don't want the grain oriented that way!

So if you go with walnut replacements instead, I strongly suggest that you stick to the "correct" grain orientation.