Tuesday, June 18, 2013

and some other stuff...

I ended up going with a 1 1/2in bottom cleaning bit from Magnate.  They were very responsive to my questions and the bit arrived very well packaged.  Definitely worth the price..which is very reasonable.


I has to enlarge the opening in my router sled for the new bit and then I was ready to start some milling.


..after I set up some chip shields to try and contain the mess I was about to make.  this worked out ok although the shop did get a thorough cleaning after this process was done.


The bit worked great.  Much better surface finish and I was still able to take almost 1/4" in a pass if needed with a 2 1/4 hp router.  I don't know how a 2in bit would work with my router, but I'm pretty sure any of the 3+ hp routers would handle them no problem.  The cutting was very smooth and easy to control.


Liberal application of wax to both sided of the sled and rails certainly helped.  In the end I cranked through 18 rounds in a couple hours.


I then got a bit side tracked..and started making a test piece to try out the joinery I wanted to use for the record case.  Basically I rabbeted both pieces of 3/4 in stock so that there would be 1/2 in dovetails.  This leaves a raised boss on the inside of each piece which allows me to cut my dado for the top/bottom through instead of having to mess with making it blind.  It also makes the dovetails look a bit more delicate than if they were cut through the full 3/4.


I actually pre-finished the inside of the parts for this little project.  I think I may start doing this more.


I didn't want to just cut the joinery on scrap so I decided to make a "tray" to hold papers on my desk at work. Dovetailed sides and floating ship-lap bottom.


In the clamps, glued this up with the Old Brown Glue.  I am becoming rather fond of using that stuff.  It takes a bit longer to cure, but I like the longer open time and knowing that it won't mess with my finish if I don't get every little bit off.


After a couple coats of shellac and some wax..ready to help contain the mess that is my desk.


While the glue/shellac was curing I was also playing around with doing a quad match veneer from a piece of Claro walnut that I had.  I am continually impressed with how well the bandsaw does at cutting thin veneers.  I used the OBG again to glue the veneers to some 1/2" plywood.  I think that veneer work is definitely someplace where some true hide glue would be nice. I like the ides of hammer veneering more than dealing with making a veneer press.

Design Decisions.

You would think that I would be better at making decisions about my designs before I have started to buil a project...designing things is what I do for a living.  Being able to put off those tough decisions until the the last minute turns out to be one of the really liberating thing about doing projects at home, for myself.

I am beginning a build for a record case which will be a gift for a friend who is DJ'ing our wedding later this summer.  He still spins vinyl so I thought a classy case for him to haul records to his gigs would be great.  The basic design is styled around tansu hardware from Lee Valley.


I've got some cherry glued up which will make the case sides.

and I have a chunk of maple burl which I plan to slice off veneers for the top from.


I think this is the layout I'm going to with for the top.
The next big decision I need to make it what proportions to use for the upper and lower portions of the case. The version on the left has a much deeper top at 5 1/2 inchs while the one on the right is 3 1/2. I ordered both types of hardware layed out in the two options.  The deeper top will leave more of the records exposed which should make removing them easier, but for some reason I'm hesitant to commit to that design.



Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated..






Monday, June 3, 2013

Finally back into the shop.

I finally got back in to the shop this evening for a few hours.  This past weekend was spent working on the yard which is looking pretty good.  Time to starting working on some center pieces for the wedding later this summer.  Last fall while cutting firewood I cute a few dozen cookies from  a ~12" log.  They have been stickered in the shop all winter drying and are close enough.


The plan is to flatten them and and then cut a pocket in the top side for a ball jar which will hold flowers.  Being end grain I don't want to run them through the planer and risk it and hand planing 24 of these isn't my idea of a good time.  I considered use the belt sander, but I really need to cut some serious thickness (~1") off of a few of these.  I decided to build a jig to use the router for this task.  


Got the jig built tonight and ran a couple cookies through it.  Ended up adding screws to bottom rails which I can tap the cookies down on to to hold them in place.  The results were promising.


It certainly makes a mes...this was just from 2.


Tried out a couple colors of shellac...I think the clear is going to be the one we go with.  There will be a new router bit in the mail soon as the larges bit I own currently is a 3/4" straight bit.  I am thinking about one of these.


The flat bottom is the same width but the corners should help leave a smoother surface which will require less sanding.