Edge tooling and base finishing

I've just finished up the tooled texture on the sawn edge of the table top. The Beebe micro scorp works great most places, but the curly and quartersawn grain in some places was tough. The fact that it keeps running up and down hill doesn't help either. It looks good, and feels great.

I've done the final sanding on the base, so its ready for its first coat of oil. I opted to use figure eight fasteners to attach the top since the grain where the legs would join is not going the right direction. This will make servicing the table easy if ever needed.

Finally today, I did all the edge softening on the top, a final once over on the edges, and sanded through 320 grit. It looks pretty amazing.

Base Assembly

Today I did the joinery for the table base. I set up the Multirouter to do twin 3/8" x 2" mortises. I did this by laying out the joint off a center line on each part. This ensures that all the mortises will be spaced exactly the same. I had to get creative to clamp the 15" tall leg parts to the table.

After all the mortises were routed, I machined floating tenons in the same walnut. I fit the tenons to the mortises and glued them into each end of the stretcher. This way there are only 4 to glue at a time rather than eight.

After the base was all together, I started experimenting on the edge texture I will be using on the sawn edge. I'm using a tool called a micro scorp. This tool is hand made in Canada by Beebe knife works. http://www.beebeknives.com/index.html



Here is what I intend to do with it. I'm working at following the grain direction in the pattern of the tooling. Not sure if that will be apparent or not, but I'm going to try.

Top work continues

I've finished what I believe is 5 or 6 rounds of epoxy filling on the top. Today I sanded off the excess and I think I'm finally there. Any other little pinholes I find will get done right before the final sanding. Here's how it looked before sanding.

I've also been working on the parts for the base. I'm going to be using the stylized "tree trunk" plinth legs I came up with on the original piece. I've milled 12/4 walnut for these, and I've sawn off the pieces that get shaped. After smoothing all the pieces, I glue the parts back together. After experimenting with three legged layouts, I've determined it to be too busy. Going back to the idea of two with a curved stretcher connecting.

I've mocked up several variations, with different leg placement and spacing. After finding a balanced, pleasing location for the legs, I started messing around with curves for the stretcher. I keep coming back to this one, which echos the curve of the top, and tapers subtly from one end to the other.

 Here's a couple more angles.

I think it looks good from just about any angle. Up next will be more edge work, and lots of sanding.

Top Filling Continues

Three days in, and the major void filling on the top is about complete. The ($150+ per gallon) West Systems epoxy I'm using serves several functions. It solidifies any areas that are loose, or inclined to become loose. It makes the rough edges of these voids smooth and flush with the surrounding surface. It will prevent spilled liquids from becoming trapped in or running through the table. It will serve as a grain filler, making for a flatter finish. And, it looks cool having the voids be filled with a transparent material you can see down into.

This is the underside. You can see my packing tape dams held pretty well, although plenty still ended up on the cart and floor. Here's a detail of a fully filled void, showing how you can see down into it.

One pass through the widebelt sander, and all the extra cured epoxy is gone! This stuff is as hard as glass when it is dry.

Here's a shot of the live edge after the bark has been removed. I'm starting to clean it up using a combination of an awl, chisel, and a small wire wheel in a drill. My goal is to preserve its character, while creating a surface that is friendly to touch.

This area is real interesting, although a little problematic. The edge tapers out very thin here, and there's a bark inclusion and a hole. I want to save as much natural shape as I can, but i also don't want this area to be too delicate that it might break. It is directly adjacent to an existing straight cut, so I could take it back a bit to make it thicker and stronger.

Tomorrow, sanding of the epoxy on the top side, and likely application of more.

Starting a new project today, based on a previous piece I built. The beech table shown here was the inspiration for the new piece, a commission from Greg in Roanoke, Virginia via Custommade.com. 

I was fortunate enough to find another beautiful slab of Copper Beech at Berkshire Forrest Products in Massachusetts. Its a really nice slab, and dead flat across its 48" of width! Its 2.5" thick, and will stay pretty much that way since I don't have to flatten this one. Unfortunately, its too big for Greg's room, so I have to make it quite a bit smaller. After numerous conversations and photos, I've come up with a road map to get me to the size that works for the room. Here's the full slab, followed by a detail shot of the cut line.

 The goal here is to make the cut from the center of the slab, look like its live, natural edge mate on the other side of the table. This will be done by following the grain, cutting at an angle that approximates the other side. After hemming and hawing for quite a while, I finally commit to doing it.

 Next, I trim the ends to the desired length and angle on the sliding table saw.

 The next step is flipping the top upside down, and removing all the loose bark. I do this with a combination of my deadblow mallet, and a small chisel on occasion to pry it away. Most of it falls off pretty easily with a couple raps of the mallet. I love the look of those worm tracks right under the bark.

Next I cover all the knots, voids, cracks etc. on the underside with packing tape. This will serve as a dam to keep the epoxy from running straight through when I start filling the voids from the top side. 

I flip it over, and mix up a big batch of the two part clear epoxy that I use to fill the voids. Despite my best efforts, its not foolproof, some will still find its way to the floor and onto my shoes. This is the first of what will be several applications of epoxy. I will add more each day until all the areas are filled and just proud of the surface. A torch is used to remove bubbles ensuring the areas are clear and void free.

 While the epoxy is seeping in, I mill some 12/4 walnut that will be used for the base.

That was a very good first day! I'm happy with the shape, lots of sanding to come.

The Last Joinery on the Anna Rocker

The two side frames are now complete. Now comes the last joinery step of routing the three spline slots in each of the 6 miter joints. This is done on the Multi Router of course. The machine table has a center line that I use to line up the joint. I marked the first joint for the slot locations, then set the two stops on the z axis for the two outside slots. I machined these first two, then reset the height for the center. The results were good.

I unclamped the assembly and continued on with the other joints. Next I milled a piece of ash to fit the slots. I inserted the piece, then traced the shape. I cut out three of these triangles right next to each other. The result is grain that lines up across the three splines. These are cut so the long grain spans the two halves of the miter, making a strong reinforced joint. 

With all the splines glued in, I'll be flushing them up and continuing on with the shaping of the two assemblies. I also need to make a bent, laminated plywood shell for the back upholstery panel. This is a change from the prototype, but it will be a better chair. That's why we build prototypes, right?

Anna Side Assembly

I had been thinking the side assembly would have to be done all in one shot with the three miter joints and the three mortise and tenon joints. Fortunately this was not the case. After doing a dry run, I decided to do it in three steps, each being very low stress. First I glued the side rail to the front and back leg. The clamping was made easy by the little extra nub I left on the angled end of the back rail. This will now get a radius cut to flow into the rear leg. 

To glue the two miters on the rocker, I could have glued some blocks on to each side of the joint to allow me to clamp in the right direction, similar to what I did for the back leg joint. That was quite time consuming, and I came up with a better way. Since there will be spline slots cut across the miter later, I took advantage of the situation and used strategically located trim head screws to act as my clamps. It worked great, was quick, and it will be gone once I remove the screw and cut the slots.

All these joints came together very well, without a second set of hands, and no swearing.

The final step of the sub assembly is the arm. This one was a little bit trickier, involving three clamps. The miter wanted to slide past where I wanted it to be, and getting it back the other direction caused some gaposis in the mortise and tenon joint on the back of the arm. I had to leave well enough alone, the arm still needs some final shaping so it will be fine.

So here is the first assembled side, ready for final shaping. The mortises for the back rails are done, so the final glue up will be a piece of cake once the other side is all together tomorrow.

Anna Joinery Continues

Wow! I had a very productive day today. I fit the tenons for the side rails and dry assembled the rail to the legs. I put this sub assembly on top of my full size drawing to work on the layout of the miter joints. I set the rocker on top of the legs and marked the intersections. I then bisected these layout lines to get the angle.

I used my new Veritas sliding bevel gauge (Thanks Mom!) to set the angle on the miter gauge on the Felder.
I cut the angle on the bottoms of both rear legs, then both front legs. Then I scribed the rocker to each leg.

Here is the set up I used for cutting the miters on the ends of the rocker. There's a pneumatic clamp (not in the frame) holding down the far end while I make the cut. This worked really well, I crept up on the mark by advancing the black stop on the miter gauge. If you just slid the rocker on the cradle, the angle would change.

Next I cut the angle and the triple mortises on the end of the arm blanks. I'm using the Festool Domino for this operation. For multiple small tenons, its the way to go and can be set up and executed faster than the Multi Router. Those three mortises are cut off one layout center line, and the machine has indexed height stops so its perfectly repeatable.

Now that all the joints are cut for the side assembly, I can go ahead an put it together. I'll do some preliminary shaping of the arm before I glue it up, but here it is! Hope to glue up tomorrow. Looks like I'm going to have to do it in one shot though. I hope Laurie can help.

Anna Rocker Build Continued

Today I continued with the final smoothing and shaping of parts for the chair. This work is done with a small arsenal of tools, from planes, spoke shaves, scrapers, and the good old edge sander. Here's one of the back legs getting refined.

Next I continued on with the joinery. All of the mortise and tenon work is done now with the exception of the two back rails. All of these joints were cut on the Multi Router. For those of you who do not know what that is, have a look here http://jdstools.com/multi-router.aspx. It is essentially a 3 axis milling machine, manually controlled rather than CNC. It is the fastest, most accurate way to do a great many operations on the shop, joinery and otherwise. Here's a mortise being cut in the front leg.

The side rails have a pretty sever miter on the back end. Because of this angle, it will make clamping that joint difficult. The rail will also have a curve at the intersection to make it flow together with the leg. I opted to leave an extra chunk of wood there, with the right angle to aid in clamping. This piece will get cut and shaped to create that curve after glue up. Here's that rail getting mortised.

Tomorrow I will be fitting tenons, mortising the back rails, and starting the arms. I will also start building the fixture to hold the assembled sides while I cut the spline slots in all the miter joints.

Anna Rocker Build

So I haven't been blogging for a while, but I have another long distance customer and its a good way to keep them up to date. This project is a Mid Century inspired rocking chair for Anna and her new arrival Matilda. This has been going on for quite some time with design work, fitting, and a full size prototype. That first version is at the upholsterer right now and should be done soon! My upholsterer David at http://www.remnantsdesign.com/ is the best. He specializes in exactly what we're doing here.

                     Here is a photo of version 1, sans upholstery.

The final version of the chair will have splined miter joints where the arm legs meet the rocker and the arm. The back leg will also kick out a bit further toward the rear.

The rockers are the first thing, since the 7 layer lamination takes 24 hours to dry for each. I rip 1/4" strips off a board, keeping them in order the way they came off. Next I run the strips through the wide belt sander, removing the bandsaw marks. I put the stack back together, and prepare my glue. I use Unibond 800 for laminations because of its very rigid glue line. I roll glue on with a foam paint roller, stack them up in order. I finally found a perfect use for these goofy clamps I bought on auction a while back. They don't slide off when used on a curved surface!

Once the glue is cured, I joint one edge, then run the other side through the planer. I'll set these aside till I'm ready to cut the miters on the ends.
Next, I started milling the 3 rift ash boards, then used my patterns to select the grain I want for each part. I rough cut each part on the bandsaw. Then its on to joinery. 


I'm going to do the bridle joints on the back legs first. I cut the angle on the ends of the four parts on the sliding table saw. Next I machine the mortise on the Multirouter. I make test cuts so I get it perfectly centered. Then I use mortise to set the cutter height for the tenon. Once I cut one cheek away, I've lost the reference to the fence on the machine for the other side. I milled up a piece the exact same size as the length of the tenon to use to set the piece up for the other side. Forgot to get a picture of that. It worked great though. I dry fit the joint, and its a bit tight. Couple swipes with the Clifton plane and its right where I want it. This is a difficult joint to glue up, like a boomerang in two parts. I've decided to add glue blocks to each face so I can clamp in the right direction.

Once that glue has set up about half an hour, I go ahead and glue up the leg joint. Awesome, squeeze out all around.

I leave that clamped for an hour or so. Then I have to cut and plane off those glue blocks. It was a pain, but the result was worth it. Perfect joints. Next I'll be cutting and smoothing the leg to final shape.