Thread: Cubism Competition 2022 - CKlett

Next step on my journey was to sort out and start resawing the boards for the boxes. As said before I setyself the challenge to use hand tools as far as possible. I figure I have so many repetitive steps in here that it will help building my skills.

So I made this frame saw for this task. I wanted to make it for a while. Now was the time.



Cut the first boards from QLD Walnut.

The build thread is here I framed my saw

Now off to a good workout...

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I haven't even put a saw to wood yet and you've finished making whole new tools for yourself to make the challenge project with. Cklett, you and Derek are going to give a man depression or at least a figurative kick in the nethers to get myself moving.

Originally Posted by Alkahestic

I haven't even put a saw to wood yet and you've finished making whole new tools for yourself to make the challenge project with. Cklett, you and Derek are going to give a man depression or at least a figurative kick in the nethers to get myself moving.

At least you didn't decide to make everything handtoolstyle like me. I spent 2 hours today resawing. It was fun, but I am sure my arms are going to hurt tomorrow....

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This is how I prepare the stock. First I need to resaw quite a bit of material.

As timber I choose Queensland walnut. I have a few of long pieces with mix of light colored sap wood and nice dark coloured heart wood. Not sure if my terminology is correct.



Anyway, for the bodies of the single boxes I am using the light wood and for the lids the dark.

I selected the most suitable pieces and cut them to lengths of just over 500mm. They are roughly 50x70mm cross section. This way they are more handleable. Out of one 500mm length I should get enough material for 1.5 boxes.



After that I clean up the surfaces with a single iron plane just to get clean surfaces and get rid of the saw marks. The timber was rough sawn.



Next I flatten and true up the two big faces of the sections using winding sticks and mostly a #5 plane.



I do not bother to square of the sides. The two faces are opposite from each other and will form the faces of the thinner boards I am going to get. Before joining them I need to square them up anyway.
Now it is time to cut the kerfs for resawing.



I am cutting two sets of kerfs so I get one board from each side of the section which will leave a middle piece.

Off to resaw with the frame saw. I put on some nice music and go to town. The kerfs will keep the saw on track and I try to fall into a nice steady rhythm. Regularly checking if everything is OK and moving the workpiece up as the cut goes deeper.



I am trying to cut from one end as far as my vice can still securely hold it before I flip it around and cut the rest from the other side.

Finally I have a number of boards with the cores left.



The cores will be treated same way again to get some more boards from them. Rinse and repeat.

To flatten and smoothen the saw marks off I made myself a planing board with some screws set in to hold the boards on a more flat ground than my workbench.



The screws can be adjusted easy in height to give good planing stop for the timber bit not risking to run into them with the plane. I used my German double iron plane for that.



I have now enough material for a couple of boxes. I will need to prep some more later.

Next will be glue up of the boards to give me the right width and then cutting the blanks for the box sides.

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The coffe mug looks ordinary [emoji6].

Cheers Matt.

I envy you a bit, that's some nice looking QLD Walnut. How is it to plane? I love this part, where the rough sawn usually looks like so dirty and industrial but after a bit of clean up it's completely transformed.

Originally Posted by Simplicity

The coffe mug looks ordinary [emoji6].

Cheers Matt.

I was cutting a lot of wood. So I thought Vancouver would be a good fit.

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Originally Posted by Alkahestic

I envy you a bit, that's some nice looking QLD Walnut. How is it to plane? I love this part, where the rough sawn usually looks like so dirty and industrial but after a bit of clean up it's completely transformed.

It planes quite good. But due to high silica content the blades blunt quickly. I had to sharpen more often than I thought.



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OK, I know, it has been a long time. Life got very busy and unfortunately other priorities had to take over. I am not sure if I will finish in time, but as time allows I am still working on it.

Finally managed to join the boards I had prepped before.

To make sure I get good joints I used my #5 and had two matching boards in the vise at the same time. This way if I got them out of square they would still fit together nicely and stay flat.



Glued them all up



After that I planed them again nice an flat and started to saw them to the right width.





Once they were all the right width I cut them to length and squared them up on the shooting board.





Now I had at least a few stacks ready for dovetailing.





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Finally got the first cube body dovetailed.



I decided to give an alignment jig (see Katzmoses on youtube) a go.



This cube was my second attempt, after I cut out the wrong waste on the first. And yes, before anybody says anything, I had marked the waste. But what can you do if one doesn't pay attention...




Anyway another 7 to go. As the first ones still have some gaps I will need to fix later I hope at the last one they should be really nice. Let's see....

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Your dovetails are so crisp, can I send you my remaining four drawers to do?

Originally Posted by Alkahestic

Your dovetails are so crisp, can I send you my remaining four drawers to do?

You are too kind, but I do believe the camera was helping me hid my shame.

Here are all of them in better view



There are a few gaps, but I think I will be able to fix these once after I glued them up. This is the first of 8. So by the eighth I should be better.

Do you still want me to do your drawers [emoji6] I have seen your dovetails in your thread and believe they are better than mine.

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You're much too kind! Once they're glued up with maybe a slip of wood in any larger gaps and they'll be perfect. I have the counter view that I think the close up shots make joinery look worse than it really is. The dovetails on my carcass are the second set... I cut off the first set after doing all 4 corners because they weren't good, and I spent probably 10 hours cutting and finessing the second set, not very efficient but at least I only bungled one corner this time.

Now I am having 3 bodies done and hope by tomorrow I am up 5.



As I am going along I am improving on my technique. But still some flaws in there...

For the remaining 3 boxes and lids I will have to first prep some more stock. But I feel I might still be able to finish in time. Let's see....

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