Memento Display Shelf

[wtnhighlander]

Worked on the bowl a bit more. The goose-neck scraper seems to be the best tool I have for cleaning up the inside.

I trimmed the outer shape, and did a little sanding before my time was up.

[wtnhighlander]

More work on the bowl. In answer to @Coop's question, the hack-n-glue job gave me a little extra thickness to work with, allowing this 'foot' on the bottom, while not going shallow for the recess.

Once the edge was shaped, I tried my largest roundover for the outside wall, but the radius is just too far short. So, with planes and spokeshaves, I went to work, increasing the outer radius to mach the inner.

Imagine Frank Sinatra, crooning "I did it the HAAAAARD way!"

[wtnhighlander]

Planing away the material needed to match the inner radius is going to take a loooooong time. I had just a few minutes today, so I tested a hand tool technique for making curves witb saw and chisel.

I made several kerfs to define the depth necessary to remove. Blue tape is a visual guide.

The kerfs help control splitting and run out as I chisel away the waste between them.

Finally, a plane & spokeshave bring the rough cut pretty close to final shape. This is marginally faster, but far less laborious, than removing it all with a plane.

Tomorrow, I'll try another idea...

[Coop]

Ross, can the Holey Galahad or what ever you used to excavated the inside of the bowl, not be used to shape the outside perimeter? 

[wtnhighlander]

@Coop, yes it can. But I find it much harder to fairly shape an outside curve with that tool. Not to mention, the mess is horrendous. For the inside, it is easier to control the radius, and I had few other choices at hand, anyway.

[Mark J]

I was thinking of rasps like Bmac uses on his MCM furniture.

But I have to say, Ross, you are one inventive guy.  I shudder to think what you would do if your shop was 4000 sq ft.

[wtnhighlander]

10 minutes ago, Mark J said:

But I have to say, Ross, you are one inventive guy.  I

Necessity is a Mother...

Something tells me you have already figured out how to form this on the lathe!

[Mark J]

10 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

Something tells me you have already figured out how to form this on the lathe!

Not me, but there are eliptical turning chucks out there.  Here's one that's a mere 3000 bucks.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.woodworkersemporium.com/amp/Vicmarc_V00870-4/

[wtnhighlander]

I tried trimming more off the bowl with my bandsaw. Forgot pics, sorry. Works, but I need more practice to get smooth with free-handing a non-flat object. Drawing the work backwards across the teeth is good for smoothing faceted cuts. In the end, I used a combination of bandsaw, belt sander, block plane, rasps and sandpaper glued to a board. The shape is about as good as I'm gonna get it.

The rim needed leveling. Old Number 7 worked well for that.

Now for a discovery.... I needed to glue up a couple boards to make the shelf. Feeling lazy, I just used the crosscut blade, already mounted, to rip the live edges off. This home center blade, a 60-tooth 'Spider Tarantula' from Lowes, made an amazingly smooth rip. Can you find the seam?

Just to prove it wasn't glued yet, I shot this.

So one more rambling revalation. Even though it isn't perfectly symmetrical, the left-over piece of molding makes a good sanding block for the working pieces.

[wtnhighlander]

I'm falling down on my duties as a "journalist", not taking enough pictures. Here are a few, though, to illustrate a technique or two.

First, I find that multiple saw kerfs really cut down on the chisel work for notches and dovetails.

For the bowl shelf, I added a shallow recess to keep the bowl from sliding off easily, if the bench is bumped.

Again, free-handed. I have practiced this a lot, but it is still nerve-wracking when you get right to the line. I prefer to plunge into the center and work outward.

I chiseled a champher around the recess, which will get 'softened' considerably with sanding.

Finally, I made a similar recess under the foor of the bowl, as a rim is less likely to rock. This time, I made one pass around with my bigger router and a straight bit, the carefully eased up to the line with a core box bit in my trim router. The first pass made clearance for the less controllable core box bit, but I held off removing any more until after the edge was rounded, to leave support for the tiny base of the trim router. Still takes a lot of sanding. The pic is after I started wasting out the center again.0

[Coop]

Who needs a darned ole lathe anyway! Looking good! 

[wtnhighlander]

I hope no one reads this and gets the idea that I am promoting free-hand routing this way. It is very hard to get good results, especially on a geometricly shaped piece. I was just too lazy to set up a proper jig to do it right. And it shows. Sanding hides a lot of flaws, fortunately.

[Mark J]

Clearly what you need is an elliptical attachment for the Spin-A-Ma-Jig .

[wtnhighlander]

9 hours ago, Mark J said:

Clearly what you need is an elliptical attachment for the Spin-A-Ma-Jig .

You'd better believe, that crossed my mind! Started me trying to recall an episode of The Woodwright's Shop, where Roy visited a 19th century factory that rurned oval picture frames. 

[wtnhighlander]

This evening, I took time to trim and re-shape part of the hanging shelf, as I had cut it a bit too tight to fit between the legs. Then I marked, and started cutting, these inset dovetails for the shelf suspenders.

This gives the suspension bar a good hold on the upper rail, without weakening the rail much. These will be dry-fit with a screw through the back, so the shelf can be removed without a visible trace, should the owner so choose.

[Coop]

Hopefully this is for a good friend and he’s not paying for R&D, ie, time and materials! Great problem solving Ross! 

[wtnhighlander]

For any neophites reading this, I want to show that fine, expensive tools, while very nice to have, are not strictly necessary. A $15 flush trim saw cuts joinery quite well.

Now for a sneak peak:

Except for the thin beading, all is test fitted, and functional. Next up is sanding and final assembly.

Call for opinions: what would you do to refine the bars that suspend the shelf?

[Coop]

I would put the same bead as on the legs and bottom shelf.

[Mark J]

I was thinking the same thing, you might want to try mocking that up first.  Maybe wrap the leg with some brown craft paper and draw the bead, or you could try to emulate a bead with a rubber band?

[Chet]

Maybe a negative space in the center down the length of both.

But what would have been real cool is if they weren't there at all, the shelf just floated from the leg connection.

On 9/28/2021 at 4:54 PM, wtnhighlander said:

For any neophites reading this, I want to show that fine, expensive tools, while very nice to have, are not strictly necessary. A $15 flush trim saw cuts joinery quite well.

I had that exact saw until I bent the blade and replaced it with a saw from a brand that would be more excepted on woodworking sights.  Its been a good saw but I actually think the Irwin saw was a nicer tool, definitely liked the handle more.  

[Immortan D]

On 9/28/2021 at 8:54 PM, wtnhighlander said:

Call for opinions: what would you do to refine the bars that suspend the shelf?

I'd make them thinner, something like this:

[Coop]

On 9/29/2021 at 12:37 PM, Immortan D said:

I'd make them thinner, something like this:

If I send you a pic of m shop, can you make it bigger?

[wtnhighlander]

8 hours ago, Chet said:

 

But what would have been real cool is if they weren't there at all, the shelf just floated from the leg connection.

My earlier plan had been to make cantilevered from the legs, but then I decided to make it removable. Now it hangs from 3 vertical bars that attach to the 'aprons' under the top. You just can't see the 3rd one in that photo.

[wtnhighlander]

All I had time for this morning was some cleanup, and beading the shelf hangers.

The bead just seemed to fit the overall theme best. It was much quicker to clamp my trim router in the vice, than to set up my table router for these small pieces.

[wtnhighlander]

Sanding, sanding, sanding... worst parts is ran out of 180 grit, and had to resort to using some Craftsman paper, the "high-end" stufc my local Lowes store carries. Complete and utter garbage. I used up 6 disks, sanding what required only one disk of the Shop Smith 120 grit. It was a sad day when my local store switched to Craftsman.

I also started the lye treatment on the cherry bowl. First coat is still wet on the bowl, mostly dry on those 2 little 'pork chops' next to it. They go with another project. A few applications, sanding with 320 between to smooth the raised grain, will give me a deep, candy-apple red. Requires a rinse with diluted vinegar to neutralize the lye, before top-coating.

The other pieces I did for this same guy, have mellowed a bit over time. The color is still a deep, dark brick red, slightly more brown than the fresh color.