Three on the go

[devonwoody]

My wife feels I have been neglecting her friends so I have got another three boxes underway.

Prepared some maple on the bandsaw, I am going to make this set of boxes with three saws already set up from the last diagonal box, this means I do not have to keep changing the fence and can maintain stock measurements.
However there is a pleasant surprise on the way.

I have a home made workstation for the mitre crosscut saw, this is going to be used to cut boards to set lengths.

Boards cut to lengths, but the pleasant surprise is that the waste offcuts look interesting, I can feel a new pattern design coming from them, vertical stripes and contrasts!

Plus some BWalnut for contrasts.

Gluing up underway on the workstation board using screwed and clamped holding sticks. ( some of the screwed ones have been swung on a screw to apply tension. ) Got all three sets glued up, changed them over each hour.

Got to go gardening today before the wet weather expected comes in. The wife as got runnerbeans 12" high in pots ready for planting out.

 

[devonwoody]

It was a bad day in the workshop yesterday. Some of that prepared timber, maple, I had forgotten was very difficult, last year I had buried it in the store area because it will not work very well.

So two of the boxes look like they have spent their life on the moon, the timber planes up and the appearance looks like those craters you see.

I changed the planer/thicknesser blades thinking it was about time anyway, (three years on the go) that takes me a couple of hours, glad I got the manual out, I had forgotten those mounting lugs on the blade holder, could easily have forgotten all about them.

Then I found the rubber drive belt has stretched after only 6 months use and 6 months storeage off during the last winter. So there is slippage.

Ran a solid piece of Iroko through the thicknesser and that came up with a furniture finish, so blades went in OK. I do not use any jig to set the blades, just an aluminum ruler laying between two wooden blocks and then can watch the ruler slide along 5mm past a block edge.

So these three boxes are going to have a good sanding 60 grit to clean them up.

 

[devonwoody]

To display the problem with this particular piece of Maple which applies to many of the panels, see picture below.

However an hour of orbital sanding with 60 grit and 120 grit restores the appearance as such.

Hoping to finish off later today.

 

[JakeS]

To display the problem with this particular piece of Maple which applies to many of the panels, see picture below.

This may be an egg-sucking point, and maybe I'm just missing something, but... it looks like the kind of breakout you get when you put the bit of wood through the thicknesser the wrong way, to me? Apologies if it's a redundant question, but are you being careful to feed it so that the grain is rising 'away' from the cutters (up to down in the same direction as you're feeding into the thicknesser, or up to down in the opposite direction as you're feeding over a planer table)?

 

[devonwoody]

I would agree with your comments Jake, this is what normally happens, but in this instance it did not help if I then reversed the direction on the same piece. It is in my opinion one of those pieces of wood that comes up at times.

 

[devonwoody]

Didnt manage to finish, cold weather delayed gluing and ...............

However cut the tissue lids using a jig saw again to avoid changing the blade on the bandsaw, must find a method using a preshaped jig, any ideas welcome for use with a jigsaw.

The lids glued and will be put to the router for roundovers and underside rebating to fit carcass.

 

[marcros]

do you have a router dw?

 

[devonwoody]

do you have a router dw?

Yes, please carry on, I'm interested (no guides its a Triton and not standard at base)

 

[marcros]

I would have thought that the easiest way would be to make an mdf master template and use a top bearing flush cutting bit to trim it to size. Similar to http://www.axminster.co.uk/axcaliber-fl ... -1-4(635mm)-prod805335/ You may need to do a quick initial trim with the jigsaw, to get it somewhere near to your template, but it can be rough and ready.

 

[JakeS]

I would have thought that the easiest way would be to make an mdf master template and use a top bearing flush cutting bit to trim it to size.

Seconded.

But then, I've had trouble keeping a jigsaw against a ruler, before... ;-)

 

[devonwoody]

Marcos thanks for your suggestion. My latest axi cat. 2012 does not have any cutters with that cat number, I see there is a 666o89 trim router top bearing cutter page 321.

However the tissue box lids are quite small and lid size can vary slighty so I dont think I could clamp a template on lid and work router easily.

But then again I have never used bearing cutters free hand.

I have a router table (triton again) so is there a way using the table, ( I use a roundover bit with guide that just catches lid aperture as it glides through)

I would still prefer to use the jigsaw I feel safer.

 

[devonwoody]

I would have thought that the easiest way would be to make an mdf master template and use a top bearing flush cutting bit to trim it to size. Similar to http://www.axminster.co.uk/axcaliber-fl ... -1-4(635mm)-prod805335/ You may need to do a quick initial trim with the jigsaw, to get it somewhere near to your template, but it can be rough and ready.

Ok found it

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axcaliber-fl ... -1-4(635mm)-prod805335/?searchfor=805335

 

[devonwoody]

fHIT

I dont quite know what happened, I think the guide wheel on the roundover router bit rode up and the cutter dug in, the timber is only 7mm thick and there is not much timber for the wheel to ride on.

Anyway dont tell the misses.

I cut a new aperture.

And I ended up like this.

Looked around for a piece of waste to make the bottom sliders and this piece nearly fitted the bill, its 4mm thick and the rebate was cut with a 4mm cutter so I am going to reduce its thickness.

Put on the safety glasses and stood back around 6 ft., I should have worn ear muffs as well, but it came out the other end perfect.

 

[devonwoody]

All above are now ready to finish with an external coat of shellac and wax polish and will be posted shortly.

Delay because I am attempting to create a new design and my head is spinning again.

Vertical patterns have not met my expectations on past boxes.

so timber displayed here is not being proceeded with.

However a panelled box could be a challenge.

 

[marcros]

DW, how about getting 2 identical pieces of contrasting wood (per side), and stack cutting a random, or otherwise, pattern on the bandsaw. You could then swap the top half of each, and providing the bandsaw was cutting true, get a perfect match. I think that the scrollsawers often do this. May even be possible with a jigsaw. You would end up with side for 2 boxes, one dark on top, light below/lower half, the other light on top, dark below.

If you were feeling adventurous, you could do a skyline, or anything like that. If you were feeling super adventurous, you could do the technique where you make somebody's face in profile, whatever that is called.

 

[devonwoody]

Some good suggestions there, it certainly would take some skill using a bandsaw , one fraction of a second the wrong cut with a bandsaw is a long way. I have often thought of resawing a pattern and using thicker timber.

 

[JakeS]

DW, how about getting 2 identical pieces of contrasting wood (per side), and stack cutting a random, or otherwise, pattern on the bandsaw. You could then swap the top half of each, and providing the bandsaw was cutting true, get a perfect match.

Unless your cuts were all perfectly straight (in fact - even if, if you have more than one angle), wouldn't you have problems with the kerf? I think my bandsaw cuts something like a 2/3 mm gap... admittedly it's not a thin-kerf blade, I'd be interested to see quite how tight stuff like this could be done!