Build Thread

[Sheets]

Quote,

(Originally posted by Neil)

"Also working through a large shed full of green wood (English Oak, Silky Oak, Blackwood, Pear & Cypress) that needs to be pre-turned before it all splits on me."

Yes, nothing worse than a fissure in your figure. Unless, you know, you were born that way.

[Sheets]

So as not to be totally idle when the weather is nasty outside, I've been working on another weather instrument project. I'm making this one as a gift to Ross, who's given me the band saw.

I made the base out of curly maple (top part is elm) instead of the usual walnut and I decided to attach the two parts using only screws inserted through the base bottom. I'm a little pressed for time, so decided on the simple base attachment. The edges are finished with a simple chamfer.

I've got one coat of tung oil applied so far which is still curing so I'll give it a couple more days before putting on more coats. The wood may look dry, but if you rub the surface with a finger, the oil will heat up and turn liquid. I'm using pure tung, so it takes its time to cure and one just has to wait.

I'll have to run over to Lee Valley for the instruments (barometer and thermometer).

[NeilS]

Nice bit of curly maple there, Steve. Imagine you needed your best finishing plane to avoid tear-out with that grain.

.....

[Sheets]

Nice bit of curly maple there, Steve. Imagine you needed your best finishing plane to avoid tear-out with that grain.

.....

$40 Kakuri block plane,...but it was sharp (that's the secret).

[Sheets]

Finished and delivered (actually, picked up - Ross came to visit, so I gave him the gift. Not exactly a fair trade, but he was happy).

[Sheets]

I’ve finally gotten the panels roughed to dimension. I’ve taken pics of the surfaces I had to deal with after the “coarse” dimensioning with the Makita. There is also some remanants of the bandsaw blade on a couple. The pattern is due to the saw vibrating which makes the blade react in the wood and leave a distinctive mark. I will need to work further on the saw to try and eliminate the source of the vibration (could be out of balance/round wheels, a lack of rigidity due to the extension block, compounded harmonic because of the floor/base, poor tensioning, etc.)

I’ve also shown pics of the two basic planes (kanna) that I use. One I got from Fujibato, an online seller in Japan (I don’t know what brand it is) which was under $30. This one is sharpened with a fair radius accross the edge and acts like a scrub plane. The other is a Kakuri block plane from Lee Valley Tools (about $40). Both of these kanna are small (44 and 42 mm blade widths) which makes pulling easier with a fairly thick shaving (providing they are sharp). Because the bodies (dai) are relatively short, the wood needs to be fairly flat to start with, although these kanna could be use to flatten as well if you worked only on the high spots first.

I plane both accross the grain and with the grain until the planer marks are gone and then finish with the grain. Since the scub plane leaves concave tracks, the Kakuri helps to level the ridges. The surface looks pretty good as-is, but a finish kanna would be needed to remove all traces of the rough planes and give the finest finish. Since I’m going to be covering the door with urethane, I may just sand the panels same as the rest of the door.

Next I’ll trim the individual pieces to height/width, glue them up (I’ll deal with that job in another post), plane/sand them flat as a unit and then I can assemble the door.

[NeilS]

Coming up a treat there, Steve.

.....

[Sheets]

Thanks Neil.


Having reached the thickness of the panel pieces (just a hair over so I can either finish plane or sand - I’d rather the planed surface as it looks so much nicer than a sanded one), I have been trimming them to width. I’ll leave them too tall until they are glued up, them trim the height.

Making sure one edge was straight, I used the marking gauge (keshiki) to score the line where I want to cut one side, then scored another line beside it where I will plane to at the final dimension. This way if my saw kerf wanders too much, I won’t impinge on the final width and I still have a marked line to follow with the saw (as opposed to just trying to saw outside the line). Once one side is done, I can use it as a reference to determine the other edge and repeat the same marking and cutting. I could possibly have used the keshiki to split the waste off instead of sawing, but I was concerned the amount of force needed might break the panel(s) before the split was complete.

I’m getting pretty good at ripping to the line without any wander (it shouldn’t be difficult in material only 9-10 mm thick) and I’ve shown a couple of pics (you’ll have to believe me that all the pieces went as well). To make these cuts I set the boards ontop of my WorkMate and use a space between the jaws for the saw blade to pass through. A cross-wise piece of wood acts as a stop, so I only have to use my free hand to hold down the work and not press so hard to keep it from getting pulled back by the saw (which I’d have to do if ripping something longer than the bench top). When the kerf reaches the stop, I just slide the board away from it and finish the cut with a few easy strokes since there are metal parts below the top which would not be kind to the saw teeth if they made contact.

I should probably make myself a shooting board, as right now I just eyeball the 90 deg. angle on the edge when planing them. But, I also make a couple of extra passes right at the end to put a very slight concavity to the edge (narrower at the middle of the panels). This way, when the pieces are glued and clampled together, I can clamp the boards across the middle and the clamp pressure will pull the small gap together (the wood at the ends compresses rather than the panels “bending” to close the gap). Otherwise, the clamp pressure could compress the wood at the center creating a gap at the ends. That’s the theory, anyway.
As to arranging the parts, I’ve posed a few of them in a way I think works OK. The center pieces are 20 cm wide, while the outside are 20.7 cm to account for the width thast fits into the grooves. Bearing in mind, I’m trying to honour the concept of having the boards oriented as they were in the tree (i.e., outside/inside of the boards all face the same way), while still presenting a pleasing arrangement without any obvious clashing of grain or texture. The idea is to have things look natural, but not repetitive. So I’ve flipped the center pieces 180 deg. (top to bottom), even though this means the grain will run counter to those on each side. Its still the inside/outside orientation, but I’ll have to plane the center part from the opposite direction to go with the grain. Of course if sanding, it won’t matter. And the difference in light reflecting off the parts shouldn’t be too obvious either in this application.

So next will be the glue-up, trim to heigth and plane/sand to final thickness. That’s for next post (whenever that is).

[Sheets]

Well the glue-up is complete and went OK. Before that, I did "shoot" the edges as a test-fit proved my eyeball was not accurate enough.

My clamp apparatus is a bit of a Rube Goldberg, but I don't do these things everyday, so just grab what I have on hand and use it. I needed a way of clamping near the middle of the panel but also a way to keep everything flat - maybe the rock by itself would have been enough?

I've trimmed the panels to size, but still need to finish the surfaces. I just went as far as taking down the glued edges where they were slightly off in thickness. I'll tune-up one of my finish kanna and see how it goes. If I can't get a clean enough result (since I have to reverse direction on the middle pieces), I'll try a scraper but may resort to sanding.

Once the panels will fit into the grooves in the door, I need to trim the door to exact width and height and I want to chamfer the edges of the border where the panels go. I'll have to do the chamfering free-hand (at least into the corners) since I can't run a plane unrestricted. I'm still mulling over a stain to give the pine more colour (probably instant coffee - one of my favs).

So still lots of work left to do, but it shouldn't drag out as much as it did with the panels (I hope - we are into cycling season).

[Des.K.]

Coming along nicely Steve.

Personally, I'd let the pine grain talk for itself, and go with a clean hand-planed finish, rather than trying to turn it into something it's not (no way in the world am I going to spell that "knot"); but that's only my opinion, for what it's worth.

Looking forward to seeing the end product. Hang in there.

Des

[Sheets]

Thanks for the advice Des. I know the pine will darken over time, so I could wait and let it happen naturally. Just toying with ideas. I thought the coffee stain would be an espresso of my creativity and taste I'm not a milk and sugar guy. Whichever way I go, I'll have to pine over it.

I had a look at your website link - really fantastic work. That's where patience and precision are most evidently required. Thanks for the inspiration (again).

Steve

[Sheets]

One of the aspects of doing things by hand and from a plan which is home-made, is that many details only get fleshed out as they arise during construction. Its not that you can’t think of everything during the planning stages, but often, things are not expected to be problematic so you defer dealing with them in detail until later. You may know you are going to use a particular joint somewhere, say a mortice and tenon, but the exact size is only determined as you hold the parts in your hand and use your best judgement. Nothing unusual about that. Its a downer though, when your judgement proves to have been in error.

So, in the last few days, I’ve finished the panels and assembled the door. First, I had seen some nifty items in the Lee Valley flier, called panel barrels (here): Panel Barrels - Lee Valley Tools

Seemed like a neat idea, but I didn’t need so many as come in a package (100) and even though they are cheap, I thought I could make my own. Being a cyclist, I have no shortage of old inner tubes with not much use for them. So I cut them into small strips, rolled the strips into a ball and used rubber cement to keep the rolls rolled up. Somewhere along the way, we acquired these tiny clothes pins, which just happened to be the right size to hold my “panel barrels” rolled up until the cement dried. I made two sizes, one for the sides of the panels and one for the bottoms. I still have 95% of the tube left, but at least some of it got recycled.

I’ve also taken a pic of a jig used to hold things like doors upright on edge for doing work on them. A slot in the base with one side angled to match a wedge. Simple and effective. I made this jig (two of them required) from a design in a book I had on door making when I was making the purpleheart front door.

When I was making my mortice and tenon joints, I left the tenons a bit fat, so that the joints would be tight. I “judged” the pine to be able to compress somewhat to absorb the extra thickness when the joints were assembled. But, I mis-judged the strength of the mortice to compress the tenon, and as happened to one joint, the force split the mortice (not rocket science, now that I think of it). Oh well. I’ll squeeze some glue in the split and clamp the crack back together (hopefully the tenon will get compressed and everything will stay together). So as not to risk the same happening on the other rail, I thinned the tenons before assembly and they went together without a problem.

I’ll give all the surfaces (except the panels) a final going over with the orbital sander (a few dings here and there from moving and getting bumped into), cut the chamfer then urethane all the wood parts before installing the glass and kumiko. That should leave the hardware to go and then hanging the door. Then I have to come up with something to make for my Mother’s 80th birthday in July (well, maybe her 81st?).

[Des.K.]

Hi Steve

Bad luck about the split mortice. Rather than a bit of extra meat on the tenon cheeks, a smidgeon extra along the width of the tenon may have been the way to go, provided of course you had a haunch and/or a horn to prevent the mortice popping out at the end.

For all our shoji doors and windows at the college, we used double mortices and tenons (they were essential when making up glass doors and windows). For the top rail of, say, 45 mm, we made a mortice of 22 mm, and a haunch opening of 23 mm, plus there would be the standard 10 mm horn for the shoji top (to aid in on-site adjustments and fitting). We would make the tenons about 23 mm, and the haunch about 22 mm. The thickness of the tenons would be the exact thickness of the mortices, otherwise the timber would split, as you discovered.

This extra 1 mm or so of tenon width would compress as the rail was driven home, pushing it right up against the front of the mortice to give a tight and very clean fit.

I wouldn't like to try this with hardwood, but for pine, and the yellow cedar we used up in Japan, it worked well. And the added bonus of this was that clamps were completely unnecessary. Mind you, it only works the once, there's no trial fitting. But as my instructor said when I asked what would happen if I made a mistake in the fitting, "Don't make a mistake."

So I think you had the right idea about the timber compressing, but in width, not thickness.

The door's looking good, and it will be interesting to see the finished product with the glass and kumiko in. That will give it a completely different character.

Ganbatte. がんばって

Des

[Sheets]

Hi Des,

Thanks for the comments and advice. I'm aware of the m/t arrangement you refer to having read Odate's books, (also used it when making some shoji with poplar) but I was hesitant to try it on such long and deep tenon, but shouldn't have scared myself off it as you say. Also, with using the draw-bored dowels, I was pretty confident of a tight fit (and they are tight). But I'll definitely not think of making the tenon a little thick next time.

I had left extra width on the rails to provide more strength during the making of the mortice, but I should have perhaps left this extra there until after the assembly - it might have provided just enough flex to take the tenon. Then, when I trimmed the rails to size, ...it would have split (no way around it - this was not a good idea).

I'm anxious to see it finished as well. At that stage where I have to force myself not to rush just to get it done because the end is in sight (and with some pressure to start the next project).

Steve

[Sheets]

I've started to finish the door. No stain. The sealer coat is not particularly impressive, so no pics yet. I smoothed it out this morning, but as its starting to rain, I'll have to wait to put on the next coats.

I took a pic of the bottom rail which had the split - it came nicely together with the glue and clamps. Also, the chamfering went well. I used a marking knife to define the width on the faces and then a pencil run along the end of an adjustable square for the depth. Then just pared away the wood with a 24 mm paring chisel.

So the end is nigh.