By Golly - an actual update!
:eusa-whistle: :eusa-clap: :eusa-drool: :eusa-dance:
I hope you have a cup of tea with a digestive biscuit to hand - this is a long one...
Since the beginning of "The Great IHM of 2017" (Image Hosting Meltdown), I've been trying to establish an alternative; one of which was going to be with my current website provider. But, after many phone calls to various trying very hard non English but yes English speaking Support Team members scattered around the world, I was eventually put through to a young Englishman called Vladigov based in England who spoke very clearly and at a jolly fine tempo.....NOT. :x
I am now using my website as a direct hit onto the forum. It took a bit of setting up and getting used to, but now (fingers crossed) all is good this time.
The bench is almost finished and I'm extremely pleased with the outcome so far although it did present a few challenges during the making. My last posting on the work was a brief YouTube slide film of the plaque. Here's the story...
I started to work from a picture my clients sent to me and I misunderstood the whole concept of what they wanted. I somehow got something quite different fixed into my mind and I began preparing the oak for the plaque, thinking I will carve this from one piece. The penny then dropped. It was staring me in the face all the time. I was now on a plan to create a plaque with a minor hint of resemblance to a bowl - like the picture. :eusa-doh:
So... a completely different approach was now needed. I would now create this plaque using three separate layers of oak. I wanted to get very close to the picture provided excluding the peripheral feature and I did have reservations with forming a lipped edge on the actual letters. I had two attempts - 1st; I lost a corner and 2nd; I thought I'd form a small chamfer along the edges instead, but it wasn't satisfactory. So, I thought, lets do this without the lipped edge or a chamfer and create a crisp squared edge instead. Also not forgetting, I was working with a much smaller version to that of the picture, which I would estimate is around 800mm diameter and in marble, where this plaque (the letters) is 150mm diameter and in oak. Not that I'm trying to find excuses or anything! :lol:
This is what I did...
A piece of 9mm scrap ply with a circle drawn on it ready to cut and use as a router template to form the top layer of the plaque.
Now secured to the oak and ready for the router...
As thus...
This is now the top layer of the plaque and the piece below the top is the bottom layer...
Using these router bits, I then formed a deep chamfer to echo the trefoils and an additional small quirk.
Using another scrap piece of ply, I made another template to form a well in the bottom layer which is where the letters are to be located.
The middle layer is the actual initials of the plaque. Here it is marked out for cutting...
And here is where the letters are to firmly sit into the well of the bottom layer.
With all of this work done and after a few dry assemblies with a bit of minor adjusting here n there, we were now ready for glue assembly.
The following day, I removed the clamps. I always get a thrill when removing clamps from glue assemblies.
After establishing the final external diameter of the plaque, I marked and cut close to the line using the good old faithful chop saw.
Finally, after cleaning up the outer face with spokeshaves and block plane, I formed a heavy chamfer around the outer edge and the plaque was ready for show.
The next stage was to start the panelling so this lovely plaque can be framed.
I firstly formed the groove through all the timbers which will later house the actual panels and then set out all of the panelling framework on the bench ready to mark up.
The doors...
Once everything was marked, I roughed out the mortices with the router.
This is one door...
After the router, it was hand tools rest of the way; firstly finishing off the mortices using a chisel and mallet.
I continued this task for all 36 mortices.
Right hand stile.
Top rail.
I then moved onto the tenons which I made using the tenon saw, chisel & mallet. Unconventionally, I cut the shoulder line first and then chiselled out the cheeks down to the tenon. I'm in the middle of making a short film demonstrating this, which I'll upload onto YouTube soon.
Here are the doors in dry assembly.
The tapered muntin engaged to the top rail - albeit upside down.
The stiles are tenoned into the top rail (I have my reasons why) and as the top rail has curvature, I firstly cut the shoulder perpendicularly across the cheek at its highest point and offered it into the top rail, squared it off the bench and marked for the actual shoulder line.
Front facing...
Rear facing...
After all the M&T's were done, I trial fitted the framework.
While it was so, I marked up for the stopped chamfers, the pin holes and the crucifix of the plaque.
I couldn't M&T the crucifix into the plaque due to not enough room, so the complete end section of each part was housed into the outer edge of the plaque using chisels and mallet. I did have a slight niggle of a doubt regarding it's strength with years of sitters leaning back onto the panelling, with only one external option I could think up - for possible but most likely, unlikely future issues. As it happens, the panelling is now glued up, cleaned up, and dry assembled onto the back of the bench, and now, I have no doubts about any future issues with this crucifix junction - it's all interconnected and is totally sound.
With all the joints good and the chamfers formed, I got on with preparing for the draw bores... I ripped down some walnut for the pins by hand and heavily removed the arris ready for cutting to short pins.
I made a few spare ones - just in case.
This old metal bar is a wooden floor laying tool (something I bought a few year ago to fit a wooden floor to our old living room) and it's the ideal candidate with a good thickness for hammering rough shaped wooden pins through a hole which will disperse from the other side as a neatly formed regular pin. I drilled a 6mm hole through the bar, clamped the bar to a stool and hammered all the rough cuts through the hole, landing into a bucket below - well, 30% landed in the bucket while the rest of them flew around here n there.
Finishing off with a nail punch - get through there you little blighter.
And here they are, ready and excited to get going into their holes...
With the 6mm flat bit set up in the pillar drill, I bored all the holes throughout the framework.
A quick test...
One of the doors.
To mark the centre of the hole onto the tenon, I used a 6mm wood bit and gently pressed it into the tenon. After separating the joint, I then drilled the hole through the tenon very slightly closer to the shoulder.
All components now ready for glue up.
Here, you can see I've tapered one end of the pin. On glue up, I made sure the taper of the pin was facing away from the shoulder of the tenon and then gently tapped it through the hole.
And both doors in glue assembly.
And finally cleaned up ready for fitting.
I'm going to stop this post here as it's rather long already. I'm not sure if it will fit on one page - I guess I'm about to find out.
I'll be back!
:text-bravo:
PS: Glad to be posting piccies again!
bscene-drinkingcheers:
