Memento Display Shelf

[Coop]

Ross, GF website says to treat gently until cured which is 21 days for the water base.

Beautiful piece there bud! 

[bradpotts]

Looks great! I really like the design. 

[treeslayer]

Great looking piece Ross, well worth all the effort, that really came together nicely, well done !

[wtnhighlander]

Just to polish it off, here are a couple of 'glamor shots' after the final coat of poly.

But wait! There's more...

Recall from the beginning of the thread, that this is only part of the commission. I also have to build a sitting bench, with shelves under the seat, and a bowl / tray thing to hold the guy's EDC while he is asleep.

The bench will be started soon, now that there is room to turn around. But while the finish was drying on the shelf, I did get started on the EDC tray.I had glued up some thick chunks of gnarly cherry, off-cut from a previous adventure.

The usable part is a good size to make an oblong bowl / tray, about 2" deep. I drew it out in the rough, but to manage it cleanly on by BS, a flat side is needed.

Scrubbing across the grain takes material away quickly, especially on cherry. Like peeling a carrot. Tip for noobs: The edge of your plane sole makes a good straightedge for checking your progress.

But trying to take this shot with a phone in my non-dominant hand was truly a pain.

More to come, soon (I hope!)

 

[Coop]

Sweet glamour shot! 

I hate being the last to know but I’ve come to accept it. What is EDC? I’ve thought of a couple acronyms, especially for a guy? 

[wtnhighlander]

@Coop, in this context, EDC is "Every Day Carry". You know, whatever is in your pockets at the end of the day. I normally detest using acronyms, since they are so ambiguous without context, but I got lazy. Now I hate myself...

[Coop]

I was just featuring a holder for the little blue pill, nestled by his bedside. EDContainer. 

Something I may want to consider in 20-30 years from now. 

[Chestnut]

I've put GF waterborne finishes to work  a half hour after spraying. Depend son temp and humidity. Like posed full cure is quite a bit longer but they are generally pretty durable in an hour or 2.

[Chet]

The final product came out real nice Ross.  The stain color came out looking real good.  Great work.

[wtnhighlander]

@Chestnut, I have to agree. My last project, a painted desk with HP topcoat, was good to go after one day. At any rate, Ida will be delaying delivery for a couple more days, at best.

[wtnhighlander]

A brief stint in the shop this morning allowed me to rip a straight edge on several boards that will be broken down into leg components for the bench.

My straight ripping sled design is flexible, using the fence as a guide, rather than the miter slot. But for wider boards, I need a matching support platform next to the blade to prevent sagging. For the unititated, that sagging can lead to off-square cuts and dangerous kick-back.

A friend of mine needed 14 stitches to repair the tooth marks that his saw blade left across his fingers this weekend. Kick-back is no joke, use your devices safely!

[wtnhighlander]

The next step for the legs is to bevel all these sticks, so that together, they can form 4 hollow tubes...

I do this at the table saw, setting the fence so that the blade cuts maybe 1/32 below the top face. Make one pass, flip it around, and make the second pass with the first bevel's edge against the fence, and the narrow face down. A push stick is critical to hold down directly over the center of the board. As it is, a face this narrow will rock easily, so a steady hand is key.

The slight square edge at the bevel's point rides better against the fence, that a sharp point would. Also leaves a little material to remove for adjusting the fit. And if no planing is needed, the corner is going to be rounded off, anyway. A sharp point is ... pointless.

Oh, a safety tip for the lurkers just getting into the craft. Never, never, NEVER make bevel cuts like this with the blade tilted toward the fence. The trapped off-cut is virtually guaranteed to rip you a new belly-button.

There are some advanced techniques, involving contraptions attached to the fence to provide clearance for the waste piece, but don't attempt them until you fully understand the risks involved.

[wtnhighlander]

Finished ripping the bevels this morning. 

Next step is to glue up the 'tubes'. In a very happy coincidence, the off-cut corners are just right for filling the tube, giving it the full weight and feel of a solid 3x3 stick.

[Mark J]

If you glue the filler in place do you think there will be any issues with wood movement?

[wtnhighlander]

I don't think so, Mark. At just 3" of width, there isn't much expansion, eventhough this is flat-sawn material. If it were going outdoors, possibly. A study from Purdue in 2016, using white oak flooring, measured a maximum expansion of 4" planks at 0.064", with a moisture content change from 7% to 14%. But that was material acclimated to a controlled environment, then left outdoors, under cover, for weeks, to reach that change.

I suppose I could use a little glue on just one side of the filler, to allow some wiggle room.

[wtnhighlander]

I needed to clean the bevels a bit, just taking high spots off the saw marks. My powered jointer is a pile of junk, so I went old-school, with my #7 in the bench vise.

From all 16 pieces, this is the shaving pile.

I switch to clear packing tape, to better see the alignment of the corners during glue up.

I've heard a Titebond rep joke about how much they love us hobby woodworkers, because we use so much more of their product than is necessary. I tried to keep it minimal, just a thin bead down each bevel. Even so, there was lots of squeeze-out.

wooden shims are so handy, I grab a pack about every third trip to the home center. I used one like a putty knife, to spread the glue evenly.

While glue was drying on the legs, I resurfaced my bench top, and cleaned up the glue lines on the seat and shelf panels. The blessing / curse of a softwood workbench is that it rarely damage ms the work pieces, and is a breeze to resurface. And will be too thin to grip a holdfast, in another year or two...

and finally, here is my not-so-fancy version of the extendable fence stop fo my cross cut sled.

Cutting the seat and shelf to final dimension is where I had to stop for today. Too much yard work waiting ....

[wtnhighlander]

Another brief stint in the shop this morning gave me time to ponder on some decorative elements. This bench design is more like a seat-height table. There will be aprons to join the tops of the legs, and the aprons will have a shaped face, like a molding. But the legs themselves are very plain and square at this point. 

I thought of several features I've seen used in mission or G&G styles, but finally decided on a corner bead detail, mostly because it will be straightforward to make with my tooling. But before making the bead, I need to lay out length and joinery. Blue tape sure makes it easy to see the marks!

Out of time again, you'll have to wait for the next installment to find out what all those markings mean!

[Chet]

On 9/4/2021 at 2:46 PM, wtnhighlander said:

I've heard a Titebond rep joke about how much they love us hobby woodworkers, because we use so much more of their product than is necessary.

This is something I picked up from Phillip Morley and started cutting way back on my amounts and I am happy with the results and the clean up is a lot more pleasant.

[treeslayer]

I think some people especially folks new to the hobby believe that more glue makes a stronger joint, it just takes time to figure out how much to use, I’m with @Chet clean up is much easier, and I don’t want to start a debate but I have heard/read that it’s almost impossible to starve a glue joint with regular clamps 

[Coop]

Squeeze out just looks sexy! 

[Coop]

On 9/10/2021 at 5:52 AM, wtnhighlander said:

Another brief stint in the shop this morning gave me time to ponder on some decorative elements. This bench design is more like a seat-height table. There will be aprons to join the tops of the legs, and the aprons will have a shaped face, like a molding. But the legs themselves are very plain and square at this point. 

 

That’s about as good as it gets! Very well done Ross! 

[wtnhighlander]

So, I finalized my layout on the 'master' leg blank, and used it to set up my cuts. If you haven't noticed, I tend to lean heavily on my tablesaw for most machining operations. Unless the task can only be accomplished by router or other means, I am just more comfortable handling it at my TS.

Using the blue tape layout lines as a visual guide, I line the master blank up and set the stop on my sled.

Then I make the same cut on all four legs, bringing them to uniform length.

The next cut is to make a groove, which will later accept a beaded insert. Same process, repeated 4 times. Used a gauge bar to set blade to 1/4" above the sled floor.

The groove takes a couple of passes with my crosscut blade, to reach the desired width.

Next is to switch ends, and mill a wider groove near the opposite end. Still 1/4" deep, still square, so I use the same process, first aligning one edge of the groove and setting tbe stop, and cutting all 4 legs. Repeat for the opposite edge, and nibble out the center. A dado stack may have cut faster, but would have required resetting to the different blade dimensions. Any time I can retain the same setup, I prefer to do that, for consistency.

Almost done with the legs, anyone guessed what all these cuts are for?

[Coop]

If it were shallower, I would say a piece of brass inlay. 

[Chet]

On 9/10/2021 at 9:09 PM, wtnhighlander said:

anyone guessed what all these cuts are for?

I can't wait to find out.

[wtnhighlander]

Does every tablesaw have this little plug in front of the blade? Handy to mark the blade width, so both sides of the cut can be aligned before engaging the teeth.

Next operation on the legs is to cut a bevel of about 30 degrees on the bottom end.

With the saw unplugged, I rotate the teeth backwads until the edge closest to the cut just kisses the edge of the tape.

Now use the fence and a stop block to lock in the distance from the cut point.

I bought this saw off CL, and the miter gauge was missing. Never replaced it, because a sled takes care of most tasks. But gauging from the right side doesn't work with my sled, so I made a simple, fixed miter gauge for this.

On to the next task...