Getting Ready For Final Assembly

I still have a few things to take care of before I can assemble the chest. I need to detail the edge at the bottom of the leg to protect it if the finished piece is ever dragged around. I also want to apply wax to at least the interior surfaces. Since I am leaving the floor unfinished I don't want to have to apply oil or wax to the surrounding surfaces. I will have a bit of detailing to do after assembly at the top edges of the legs.

For the edge detail I scribed a line about 3/32" around the sides of the leg as well as the bottom.

I then used my block plane to bevel the corners.

The finished chamfer.

I taped the inside areas of the legs where I didn't want oil and set to work applying two coats, with 24 hours between.

I also got to work applying wax to the inside surfaces of the already oiled parts.

The wax adds just a touch more gloss than oil alone. The bottom piece has been waxed.

Here are all the parts waiting for the last applications of finish.

One of the last things I do is to inlay a piece with my initials and the year of construction into the bottom of the floor. I made a template by taping the paper pattern to a piece of plastic film, (actually the peel off backing from a piece of 3M lapping film), and cutting out the letters and numbers with a razor knife. I then could put the template on the workpiece and pencil in the outlines. Then I practiced, experimented, got frustrated multiple times, called up distant memories of carving episodes of "The Woodwright's Shop", and eventually made one piece I was somewhat happy with.

As I practice carving more I expect that I will be confident enough to carve an actual part, but not today! I then made a template to guide the router to excavate the mortise.

The blue tape is shimming the guide to a tight sideways fit. I made the side cuts in the template too big initially. Here is the piece set into the bottom.

Now it is ready for final glue up.

9 Out Of 10 Panels Stay Flat

After planing the panels to thickness I cut them all to their finished size. I stickered them and set them aside for a few days to do some other work. Well, in the interim, one of the panels developed a cup, worse at one end.

The worst end. Cupped by almost 1/8".

The other end is cupped less than a sixteenth of an inch. There also is some wind.

Dang! I hate when that happens. The reason wood cups is because the cupped (concave) side has dried quicker or more than the convex side. When resawing lumber one hopes that the wood will behave but sometimes this is not the case. You are always taking a chance.

The "good" end I could deal with but the "bad" end is a problem. If it doesn't come back on it's own I'll have to do something. My choices are:

1)Flatten and thickness plane again, resulting in an under thickness piece.

2) Clamp it flat while cutting the tongue and hope the cupping doesn't cause a problem when installed.

3) Flatten it by dampening the concave side making the fibers on that side swell, then quickly cut the tongues and hope the cupping doesn't cause a problem when installed.

4) make a new panel.

Having one undersize panel is not a workable option and I would not want to thickness plane all the panels since this would either have to be done all on one side, allowing for more possible winding and cupping, or, if planed from both sides it would seriously affect my bookmatches. The two choices that involve hope, while tempting, are not attractive to me, although with a beefier frame? well, I think not. If necessary therefore, I will make a new panel.

I have set the panels aside for a while longer to see if anything changes, then I will have to deal with that cupping. I have decided to wait a bit to cut the tongues on the panels. I'll start milling the walnut to final dimensions while I see how that panel does.

Making Book Matched Panels-Glueing Up

Now I begin to glue the panels up. At this point I have dry clamped the pieces and have a set up for gluing ready. Not having all the clamps I want, I can only glue two panels at a time.

For these panels I am Using Titebond II since I want the glue to set quickly and there won't be a problem with the joint setting too soon. I spread glue evenly on both surfaces to be joined. Use enough to wet both surfaces. I am using a trimmed down acid brush here to spread the glue. You don't need a lot of squeeze out.

Make sure the correct faces are up and you are joining the correct edges. Match the grain as you want and then start clamping. I line the joint up with my fingers and begin applying clamp pressure. I try to apply pressure evenly by tightening each clamp a bit at a time. This helps keep the pieces from sliding around. It can be difficult to keep the pieces in the same plane when clamping. Sometimes you need to use a block and mallet to even things up. I fuss with the clamps until I am happy. Sometimes it takes a couple of tries to get everything right. After I have the clamps tightened I set the assembly aside and start another. This is when you want more clamps, always more clamps.

After the minimum set time for the glue has passed you can take the clamps off and scrape any excess glue off. Next I'll be sizing and raising the panels and getting them ready for finish.

Making Book Matched Panels-Edge Joining

After being re-sawn and thickness planed, most of the panel material stayed flat but I did have a few pieces that bowed or twisted. I re jointed the miscreants and ran everything through the planer again to bring it all to the same thickness. Now it is ready to be jointed and glued up.

To prepare the edges for joining I gang each pair of boards up with the show sides facing each other and clamp them in a vise. That way, if the edges are not planed perfectly square they should conform to each others bevel in the book match configuration. I usually am able to make the edges very square with the face though. I use a small square to make the edges even and to see if the edges are out of square with the face.

I use 2 planes for this.A #4 1/2 Veritas smoothing plane and  an H.M.T. Gordon wooden smoothing plane. 

I start with the #4 1/2,

Check progress along the way,

And then a few passes with the Gordon plane to finish.

The Gordon plane is set for a very fine shaving and I use it for final smoothing after I have the edge nicely square. When I think I am done I check the fit by hand and then, if that looks good, with some clamp pressure. I don't want to force anything together. A small hollow in the middle of the joint is considered desirable, the theory being that the ends will shrink a bit more than the middle of a board due to the exposed end grain. This is probably more important with longer material but, if I have a slight gap (1/32" or less) in the center of an edge joint I don't worry about it as long as I can close it with hand pressure. On the other hand, if the joint is fat in the middle or if I have to apply a lot of pressure to close the joint then I need to make it fit better. 

Finally, I check across the joint for flatness while the boards are under a bit of clamp pressure. I want this perfectly flat. 

There are ten panels in this project so I repeat this 9 more times. It really goes pretty quick with material that has been properly machined. Next it's glue up.

Panels for the doors

Here one of the doors is dry fit and clamped so I can check the fit and measure for the panels.

There is a lot of friction with all those tenons. While each piece fits by hand nicely, when the whole thing is assembled it would be hard to pull apart by hand. A mallet would work but may damage the parts. To disassemble the doors I use a reversed clamp as below. This keeps from damaging the parts when there is a lot of friction. I checked the corner to corner diagonals and I am happy to say that both doors clamped up perfectly square!

I then put a combo blade on the table saw. The Powermatic PM2000 table saw has some nice features like a shaft lock for changing blades.

I do use the blade guard when I can. I still have all my fingers despite a long career in construction and woodworking. I intend to keep them too. This saw makes using the guard easy with a lever to release the riving knife. The anti-kickback device and the blade guard have push buttons to release and attach them. The easier the saw is to use with this stuff, and the easier it is to use, the more it gets used.

Good in and outfeed tables help with milling the plywood.

I use a sled to cross cut the panels. Note the extension to the fence to allow for a stop block.

I then clamped a board to the table saw fence and set up the dado head to run a rabbet around the edge of the panels. I marked the height of the cut on the sacrificial board and marked the width of the rabbet on a test piece to help with set up.

I first set the fence by lining my mark on the test piece up with the edge of the cut in the homemade throat plate. I then turned the saw on and raised the blade until it reached my mark on the fence.

This got me pretty close and with a few test cuts and final adjustments I was ready to go. I check the test piece in the groove at several locations. It looks good to me!

 I used a feather board to keep the plywood down tight at the blade.

Now to test fit the panels. Hot diggetty, it's starting to look like a door.

Now I will check every part for fit and make sure all is ready to assemble. Next time glue up, on the "It Starts With A Tree" blog.