Thread: WIP - Printer stand

It's only a curved bit, how hard can it be?
Having glued up the blanks and roughed out on the band saw, which I couldn't really manage to get to follow my line, so I cut well outside the line and took the outer face down to the line on a disc sander. I then thought it was probably the wisest course to make the joints before attacking the inner curve face, so I started playing around with the builders square to get the joint lines at right angles at approximately the locations penciled in on my cardboard prototype. After I managed that, it occurred to me that they might not be accurate and I had better fit to real life before I went any further. Just as well, since clamping the provisionally squared ends in place showed the projections were quite wrong. A lot of manipulation was required to get the faces square to the joints and also to get the x and y coordinate lengths correct. I think I came very close to making a big mistake here. It was surprising how fractional changes at the joints caused major variation to the layout.
curve1.jpg curve2.jpg

Anyway, I think I'm close enough now and hoping when I cut the mortices and tenons in the curved bits I don't end up with big gappy joints. After the joints are fitted I'll attack the cleanup of the inner face of the curve.

Fuzzie, if it makes you feel any better, I too find it really hard to get pieces like that to fit precisely without a LOT of checking & cross-checking, so I reckon you were smart to double-check before picking up a saw. The way that's often recommended is to leave parts square, if you can, cut & fit the joints, then cut out the non-square shape, but of course that can't always be done. The next best thing, if it's possible, is to clamp the part in position and scribe tenon shoulders or any meeting lines directly onto the piece (which is what you appear to have done).

Gets pretty nerve-wracking when you are fitting something like the arms of an elaborate arm-chair, where the arm meets the front and back legs at (different) compound angles. First time I tackled one of those, I got more splinters scratching my head than from the wood!

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

..... The next best thing, if it's possible, is to clamp the part in position and scribe tenon shoulders or any meeting lines directly onto the piece......

Hi Ian, hmmm ...... a big layout table and 3 more hands would be nice. Unfortunately available options in my garage are somewhat limited , even if I knew exactly what I was doing.

On the plus side I'll probably finally get to use the Stanley #63 spokeshave thats been sitting unused in the tool cupboard for too many years, to fair the inside curves after the joints are done.

Cheers,

I've got to a point now where I'm starting to think this will eventually workout!
The main frame now fits together without too many large gaps. and the inside faces of the curved bits have been faired. I used a smaller BS blade and got closer to the line then tried to even out the saw ridges. The flat bottom spokeshave sort of worked but the round bottom one refused to cooperate chattering away to itself. I resorted to rasp and file and found the round bottom SS then worked a bit of magic taking off just the file marks. The shape is now final, but I think it will still need a go over the bobbin sander at the men's shed.
frame2.jpg
This is a bit design on the fly. I now need to decide on infill panels and I have changed my mind from a cupboard under to a couple of drawers, so drawer framing will be next.

This project's moving along at glacial speed. For some reason or other I can't maintain enthusiasm for this one, all the other things to do seem to be better options rather than working on this. I think it is partially because I have done some of the work on this at the Men's shed and there just isn't a good enough bench available to do hand work there and whenever I work on machinery there always seems to be something wrong. For instance when I went to try and use the bobbin sander it turns out all the spindles are bent, so no smooth sanding just a juddering slap slap as the wood is brought to the bobbin.

I have cut grooves for panels in the lower half, but am now unsure about the top section. Fitting panel shapes there could be tricky. I've had a thought to cane the top sections, but I'm then unsure about drilling the hole pattern for hand weaving. I don't know if pre woven rattan would be an option, that would just need a groove and I would have to find some cheap pre woven stuff anyway.

frame3.jpg

Well that was time consuming fitting panels. Although I think woven cane would look nice I decided it would also take much longer so I took a stab at the shaped panels. Referring back to the original inspiration photos I also decided to try making the panels flush (no pun intended) although I suspect the commode in the original pic might have plywood sides.

panels.jpg

Coming along nicely

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

......I have cut grooves for panels in the lower half, but am now unsure about the top section. Fitting panel shapes there could be tricky. I've had a thought to cane the top sections, but I'm then unsure about drilling the hole pattern for hand weaving. I don't know if pre woven rattan would be an option, that would just need a groove and I would have to find some cheap pre woven stuff anyway.

frame3.jpg

Nice, crisp work, Fuzzie. What's fast got to do with it?

Pre-woven cane is available from most hobbyist shops and some upholstery suppliers - start with your local Spotlight. Same sources for "unwoven" cane supplies.

Both products have to be soaked for 24 hours before use or they will be too stiff and fragile - just snap as you try to bend them. With pre-woven, the sizing of the wedge is critical - too loose and the seat will come out, too tight and you cannot force the wedge strip in.

For hand woven - my preference - the hole spacing depends on your weave pattern, the diameter of your cane and whether you want a tight or a loose weave. Loose is easier to do and faster; tight is harder - must tighten and straighten every row before you go onto the next - but I think tighter looks better and is more durable. Do some googling.



Cheers

Graeme

I really thought Tasmanian Myrtle would be more forgiving to work with than this. Everything has been kicking around for so long, moved back and forth between my garage and the Men's shed, that there are the obligatory dings and sweaty palm prints and layout lines that need to go. I've also used more machinery than previously preparing the timber. I've set my smoothing plane to take just a gnats wing thickness cut and even then I'm getting some tearout because the pieces have grain going in all directions. The panels in particular got double dose electron treatment going through the thicknesser and then the drum sander to get rid of the residual thicknesser patina. I thought the 120 grit in the sander would be ok, but now I've come to cleanup them up, it seems impossible to get rid of the sanding lines. I'm getting wispyish curlies from the plane, but still see the sanding trails. I've moved on to scraping, but I can't seem to get a hook that lasts long enough to scrape more than one or two runs. The incipient arthritis in my thumbs isn't helping either.

One of the things I used to dislike about the original bedroom furniture the timber came from was the thick coloured varnish it was finished with. I was really unaware of the grain and colour variations showing in the raw stuff, but I think I understand now that you put the finish on really thick and colour it to hide the defects underneath!

Hi Graeme, I was more concerned about laying out the holes in the curved piece at the top and how to weave into the triangle. I couldn't convince myself that I could drill all the required holes diagonally into the frame without inducing a structural failure along the edge and I didn't want to have to remake one of the curved pieces!

Spotlight don't stock anything in that line. I've used "And Woven Cane" in Brisbane to get my supplies previously.

Cheers,

Fuzzie, I think I understand your woes with getting a fine finish on the Myrtle. I have only used it a few times, but I struck exactly the same problems with eliminating sanding scratches. You have to move slowly through every grade of paper, one at a time, being absolutely certain you've removed all marks from the previous grade before proceeding to the next. Even then I found missed bits when I started to put the finish on! If it's any help, the most successful method I evolved was to use scrapers as much as possible after the initial sanding. You can remove the coarser marks & move quickly to a finer grade more rapidly that way. Full-sized card scrapers would be a bit cumbersome on your stand, so you maybe should try making yourself something a bit smaller & more manouverable. I have a drawer full of saw-plate off-cuts, etc., that I rummage in to find suitable pieces for particular jobs. What I would look for if I was trying to smooth your stand would be something longish & thinnish that I could hold in two hands & use it (lightly) like a spokeshave, for those curved & complex surfaces.

The good news is that if it's like the stuff I've worked with, it is worth the effort. When you do finally wrestle it into submission, you'll have a beautiful surface to put whatever finish you plan to use on....

Cheers,

I've been pondering the corner posts of the top gallery. The Georgian cabinets I was looking at all had some sort of sculptured detailing.
corner.jpg
I guess original cabinetmakers managed this with a few swipes of a sharp gouge, I've got a couple of reasonable gouges, but I don't trust my skill wielding them, seems more difficult than a round bottom spokeshave. I decided to try a cut on the table saw to take out the waste. After a bit of fernangling I came up with this complex angled cove cutting jig that seems to have done the job.
covejig1.jpg covejig2.jpg

Shaping up.....
cabinet1.jpg

I really must establish a preferred method for drawer building. At the moment I'm jumping between a variety of drawer building descriptions, some allow fat on the sides to be planed off during fitting, others build to size. Some plant on draw slips, others groove the sides. Some glue runners underneath the bottom panel, others don't. Then it comes to the dovetail layout and I never seem to quite get the front groove hidden. Woe is me...

Anyway here are the current drawers dovetailed up. I've got some shonky looking pallet timber that I'll glue up for the bottoms. I've been thinking about trying cockbeads on these drawers, I've never attempted those before, I may as well practise on these.

drawers1.jpg