Thread: Study - WIP

150mm isn't overly wide so I reckon you'll be safe as long as you alternate the rings up and down from board to board and seal it well.

Cheers Elan. That's the answer I wanted to hear

With the shooting board made, I decided to test out some 22 1/2 degree angles to ensure they were correct. As it happens, just a little tuning was required, as the face of the shooting board wasnt perpendicular to the base board on which the plane runs (dont know how that happened).

Anyways - a few strips of painters tape between the boards and that fixed that !

I machined some 18mm to the approximate size of the timber I plan to use, cut the ends and shot them.

Well - as it happens - the angle was PERFECT !

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While I understand that shooting the edge of MDF isnt the same as shooting hard timber - at least this proves my angles are good.

Next, it was time to test out methods of joinery.

I purchased one of these quite some time ago.


But I was unable to get a good consistent reference point on the jig. Notwithstanding, the yellow drill guide moves around 1mm or so inside the housing - which is not the best. So after inserting the dowels, the alignment wasnt great at all. So I put that jig away in disgust (again).

I also purchased some CAMs from Hafele to use as clamping mechanisms (thanks Elan).
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Apparently my drilling requires a little more accuracy. I will endeavour to make some sort of jig / reference to ensure I get the holes aligned. The CAMS appear to be a little forgiving .. but not overly so.

On the positive side, assuming I glue up the joints, it seems the cams pull the joint in pretty square and tight - which is great.

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As I mentioned earlier, the issue I was having with the dowel jig was a lack of consistent reference surface. I think have read a post on this forum previously where someone made a jig that they turned over on the opposing faces of the joint. Side A of the jig is used on side A of the joint, and side B of the jig is used on side B of the joint.

So with this in mind, I set about making one.
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To be honest, I mustn't have drilled the holes absolutely perpendicular to the face, but this was corrected with a small piece of painters tape.

And ... Am very very happy with the result on my test pieces. There is just enough play in the dowels that a gentle tap with a hammer aligns the faces perfectly.

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To further aid in the production of boards that are identically wide, which is important for the mitred joints, I decided to make a long grain shooting board. I used some 17mm form ply as the base, a couple of layers of 8mm hardwood ply as the upper layer (1 layer just wasn't quite enough), and some ally angle as the fence.

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I should be able to shoot lengths about 1500mm long. I have decided to use the #8 for this as the iron is ground straight (no camber). I will use the LA Jack for the end grain shooting. By using two planes, I am hoping to minimise blade angle movement and tuning as I move from side grain to cross grain shooting.

Ok ... I think all prep work is done now, so I can start preparing the real McCoy !

Thanks for looking...

Machining of the first pieces started. Docked the 1st board down into 3 pieces for the front of the cantilevered section of the top (section b).

First pass over buzzer with new segmented cutter head .... Noice ! Second pass just to finish off ... Noice ! Shoot to width ... Yesssss ... All is well so far. Turn board to edge to start mental preps for thicknessing.

BOARD IS ALREADY 19MM THICK !

HUH ??!!

This is 200/25 RS SBG ... No way I was taking 2+mm. So I check the other pieces. They are 20mm to 21mm. I check all the other RS lengths. All are less than 25mm. Some at 23 ... Some at 20 to 21.

Call the timber supplier ... We are at the end of the last pack, but they have some replacements for the boards that are under 23mm. So I head down with the sticks that need to be replaced.

"May I check the replacements please ?" I ask. "No problem" they say. The sales rep adds "I told them nothing less than 24mm".

Rule on 1st piece ... 21mm. 2nd is 21mm. 3rd is 21mm. "I am not taking it " says I.

So the next 45 minutes was spent searching the remnants of the pack for 3 replacement sticks. We got there in the end, but its gonna be pretty neat to finish at 20mm when I am starting at about 23mm. Fortunately one face has been skipped by the mill, and they seem pretty good, but its the longer lengths that worry me. Any twist, cup of bow might be too much. [emoji30]

And so, we start again.

3 pieces now dressed to thickness and width ready for first attempt at Mitre and dowelling.

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That's pretty poor from the supplier. I won't ask who it is, but I have my suspicions...

A little more done tonight.

First - knife lined and shot the first of the 22 1/2 degree angles. To begin with, plane was going "thump" against the edge. Time to sharpen me thinks. Afterwards ... S W I S H ... very very nice on the end grain of some pretty hard timber.

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I then set about machining and temporarily attaching the drop front for the relevant pieces, without having docked to length yet. I figure I will do that pretty late in the game.

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Bored holes for dowels and cam pins ... so far so good. Some find adjustment will be required with the dowels to get the joints as flush as I possibly can, but that can wait a little but.

I made some marks for the next cuts (upper right and upper left in the next photo) ... but wasnt game to make them without checking on the frame). So - pulled all the stuff out again, removed the temporary tops and ...

It all lined up pretty well. Am very happy so far. Its slow .. but I am in no hurry - and given the lack of availability of replacement timber should I cock it up - I have to get it right.

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Until next time !!

Cheers....

Started making the right side of the desk - marked as Section A.2 in the original plan.

My long grain shooting board is working very nicely. I was able to get consistent width along the full 1.5m length within about 0.05mm.



It didnt take long to dull the edge of the plane blade a few times, so I tucked a small piece of 12mm MDF under one end to create a ramp, allowing me to use more of the blade and reduce the amount of sharpening.



Mitres measured, cut and shot. Again, with the SBG, it doesnt take long at all to dull the edge of the plane iron, even using the Veritas Low Angle Jack plane.



With that said, my dowelling jig is wearing out very quickly, and the holes becoming less accurate with each drilling, so I have ordered some bronze bushings from a local bearing shop to make some new jigs. At the end, I can reclaim them for later use.

Time to start machining the left side now.

Some opininons sought on the following please:

1. What would you do with the leading edge of the desk top ? I am thinking a very small chamfer (say 1mm) just to ease the edge under the wrist when sitting at the desk. Thoughts ? Would you do this once the enture top is assembled ? Or do it as components ?

2. What methods do you use to ensure glue doesnt penetrate the surface of the timber and cause grief with the finish (which in this case will be hardened shellac). Tape off ? Grain seal and then a few coats of sanding sealer ?

Again - thanks for looking.

Originally Posted by Glenn.Visca

......1. What would you do with the leading edge of the desk top ? I am thinking a very small chamfer (say 1mm) just to ease the edge under the wrist when sitting at the desk. Thoughts ? Would you do this once the enture top is assembled ? Or do it as components ?.....

I like a rounded over edge and do it when it is in pieces. If there is some misalignment then use sandpaper to blend.

Originally Posted by Glenn.Visca

......2. What methods do you use to ensure glue doesnt penetrate the surface of the timber and cause grief with the finish (which in this case will be hardened shellac). Tape off ? Grain seal and then a few coats of sanding sealer ?....

I have used blue painter tape when I have time. It can be very time consuming taping every joint so depending on how I feel, I have also just glued the pieces together and used a sharp chisel after it dried a little.

If you go for a small chamfer or round edge moulding, I do it assembled and just trim up the internal corners with sharp chisel. If its going to be larger (>6mm) or a complex mould (ogee, ovolo or the like)I'd do it in pieces.

I'm enjoying watching your build. It's looking good.
I love work, I could watch it for hours.

Pete.

I quite like delicate chamfers ... as long as I can get them consistent. I recently inherited one of my grandfathers box chamfer planes, and purchased a new blade for it from the UK, so I might put an edge on the iron and give it a whirl on some test pieces.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/showth...35#post1878535

Work continues ... the pile of shavings grows.



I am still waiting delivery on the bronze bushes so I can make dowelling jig(s) MkII, so machining of timber continues.



Dressing the timber is a somewhat tedious process, given that I have very little wiggle room to get from rough sawn thickness (at say 22 to 23mm) down to finished at 20mm. To add complexity, the width needs to be 147mm, and my buzzer with its new segmented head does about 148.5mm.

So step one is to plane an edge of the RS board to remove any steel strapping marks etc. and find the thickest section possible. Then to the table saw to cut width down to about 149.5mm. Then to long grain shooting board to dress the edge down to 148.5mm. This is not a bad step actually, because it means the final edge dressing is very light (I know its not what one "normally" does ... but its working).

Once I have a board pretty close to width - onto the buzzer and dress a face. Much care taken to not go too far, or I wont have enough meat on the board to dress the opposite side. Flip board end for end, try to take out any small bows by doing partial passes on the buzzer. Once I have a face, into the thicky taking 0.2mm passes. With some boards, its only been that last pass that has seen the board fully dressed.

Once that is done, back to the long grain shooter to get to final width and a nice plane dressed edge.

Done something a little different tonight ... and included a video of the last two nights activities.

http://youtu.be/vp-bboj8M6k

Looking great
0.2mm passes?? That would drive me insane

Not the most entertaining activity ! But ... Tear out is non existent, so I can choose either the segmented cutter face, or the thicky straight knife face.

BUT ... SWMBO came out this afternoon and asked if we could buy a silencer for the thicknesser.

Could buy a segmented head says I.

I think you should says she.

[emoji50] [emoji4]