Kevin Ley inspired laundry basket

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stoatyboy

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So back in Nov 2009 issue 159 of F&C Mr Ley kindly showed us how to weave an oak panel - that looks nice I thought I'll do some of that sometime....

The usual Ikea-alike woven straw laundry basket has given up the ghost and the panels on the cover of the mag look like they would give a good air flow etc etc so off we go

lets see if I can remember how to post pictures

Recycled oak stock for the frame
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saw it up and put it through the planer thicknesser - you will notice the fence upgrade I have added here for the woodstar PT85 as the one it comes with is only slightly less rigid than smoke. simply tapped into the deck with two M6 bolts and bolt on a square bit of wood - much much better than the original
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a pile of milled stock for the uprights - not very interesting but always remember to do some extras for setting up and practice runs etc - I didn't have enough oak so used softwood - this is so important don't forget!!
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so for some detail on the tenons for the cross rails - mortices done bya router cheeks of tenon cut by table saw sled (backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards and so on
we then saw down for the other bits by hand
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scribe a line between cheeks - notice the reclaimed oak has some quite deep checks in it
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notch for saw using chisel (read this in FWW i think)
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and saw it
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round off to fit routered mortice
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and using rescued chisel (with new handle made by me on lathe first one i've done very pleased any excuse to show it off)
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undercut the the other bit (saw this on the wood whisperer but obviously didn't pay enough attention to learn what all the bits of a tenon are called)
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finally angle the edge where it meets the other tenon inside the joint using my matt black stealth plane (sorry Jimi I know it's not authentic but there's a squillion of these planes around and it was covered in rust and two quid at the boot sale - I wouldn't do it to an historically sensitive tool!)
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and it fits - teaching you lot to suck eggs with all this detail I know but it might help someone so it's up
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so what else needs to be done to the rails?

well we need a curve jigsawed
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and routered to a template
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and groove for the woven bit to go in - used my dads 050C that he's just given me as my folks have 'downsized' - funny looking thing but seems to work ok - wondering if I should make a wooden handle for it in a more traditional (and comfortable!!) shape
7584600714_daf56a6349.jpg


finally rout a matching groove in the uprights - couldn't use the plane for this as the mortices got in the way.
obviously this isn't me doing the actual machining - that would be dangerous - it's to show the 'stoat-o-matic' router lift being adjusted - I did a thread on it in jigs and tips ages ago - it works!
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and dry fitted it looks like this (this is pre curves etc etc)
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so onto the panels - the weavy bits (wefts and warps apparently) are 40mm wide so I can slice then off with my tablesaw which is handy. I think a bandsaw would be better but I don't have one. they come off at about 2.4mm thick and then get belt sanded at 80g and 100g and then hand sanded at 240 and they end up at about 1.8mm thick - which is quite thin. I clamped them to the bench to sand but the magazine article showed another way - each to his own.
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then you clamp all the long ones to the bench (not shown) and slide in the sideways ones using a dowel to open up the long ones (i'll do some photo's when I do it properly - this was just a test) and when you un clamp it you get this
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which really doesn't look like it wants to go in the frame but actually wasn't too hard - put the top and bottom in first and then the sides go in with the tenons (carefully) might need some glue with a long open time?? and it looks like this!!
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Blimey - I was ever so impressed I went running into the house to show everyone how good it looked - and they'd all gone out shopping, typical!

so a couple of questions

I have many wefts and warps to sand which vibrate too much with an orbital and take too long by hand - any ideas? - I did plane one side before each strip was cut - but it still needs sanding.

and good glues that stay useable for over 30-40 minutes but don't cost too much?

will finish off and post more when I get it done - hope you like it so far

all comments as ever - good or bad - most welcome

cheers
 
I dont actually have any experience with them yet... but I think somebody will suggest a cabinet scraper for smoothing the 'weavy bits' or maybe cut them a bit thicker - attach them to a flat board and run them through the thicknesser to arrive at final thickness ???


Just a thought, dont shoot me :)
 
It looks great - quite inspiring!

I'm curious, how do you go about finishing something like that? Do you oil/wax/varnish/whatever all the slats first and then weave them together? At what point do you do the frame?
 
I'd thickness the w's and w's using the router table, fence and straight bit, push then pull each piece through the gap, then close the gap a little [only have to move one end of the fence/piece of wood] and put them through again. It works well and consistently and sanding afterward is minimal if any. Don't forget to move the wood against the direction of cut or tell spectators to duck [DAMHIK :) ]

Sanding can be done similarly if you have a drum sanding kit for the pillar drill, but I find that less consistent and suffers from hollows due to unintended dwelling while changing hands.

HTH
 
Thanks guys nice comments

funnily enough finishing was going to be one of my questions later on!!

I'm presuming some form of spray finish would be most practical once assembled but i have no spray gear to do this

current thinking is to prefinish the ash weave bits and maybe one coat on the oak before assembly and then another after glue up - but then the finish could get damaged during the sliding in of the weave - which can require fairly 'firm' pressure!

good ideas on the sanding/thicknessing - I've already had another 'order' (from my folks) so anything to speed things up would be useful - don't have a pillar drill but obviously do have a router table.

this is why it takes me so long to make stuff - I get stuck halfway through and have to figure out how to do things!!

onwards and upwards!
 
I like your project and I am interested to see how you accomplish the finish.

Sucking eggs for me was ok, your idea of jamming the frame piece in the vice and using the jigsaw to create shape was a tip for me.
 
+1 for the whole copying the idea business. Imitation they say is the greatest form of flattery but this will earn multiple brownie points so thanks a lot - also planning to use said domino device for the joints. My Makita thicknesser will go down to 3 mm if you take it really easy so I think I am going to thickness the leaves then sand down to maybe 2.5mm and see how that is. Brilliant design well done
Mark
 
I'd be tempted to use the tablesaw to groove the uprights\horizontals (assuming no curves) and have the thickness of the "flat" bits match that.

Dibs
 
Thanks again although the design feature of the weave is not mine - hence the title, credit where credit is due! but glad you like it

my grooves are 3.2mm thick so about twice that of the weavey bits - you could probably bring them down a bit but I doubt you'd be able to get the sides in if there wasn't some extra space. My grooves are about 7mm deep and i've got about 5mm of weave sticking in them - hope it's enough, it'll be a pipper to get back in if it pops out!!

I considered tablesawing the grooves but wanted to play with my dads plane!

Domino's is how the original piece in the mag was joined - I don't have one so thought i'd use the excuse to practice some hand skills

there is going to be a lid, at the moment i'm thinking a solid oak one but it may look a bit heavy in which case I might have to do some more weaving!!

off to the garage to do some more sanding!

cheers
 
Just looking at the pictures - mentally planning the ones I need for home. I think the weave would look better if the "repeat" of the horizontal was even and an exact number. But that's me being "odd". :lol:

Any reason why there's more of the verticals on show at the top & bottom?

Cheers

Dibs
 
Hi,

it was a practice dry fit so i just sort of did it - i think the extra length at the top is an artifact of the photo angle but also doubt top and bottom were totally equal!

there are four horizontals on the one in the picture. The thing was designed with 11 horizontals widths worth top to bottom and a planned gap of one width between each horizontal starting and finishing with a gap meaning I should have five horizontals in there and six gaps

but as I say it was a practice and I didn't want to break my weaves on the first attempt so I bottled out at four

after all the sanding they are thinner though so I'm hoping I will get the five as they should bend easier (but might break easier!)

I have some spares but not loads!!

cheers
 
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