Education — Sandal Woods

May 5, 2011 By Al Navas

Glue-up and sanding time

The glue-up

Glue-up time! First thing: sanding. Then more sanding, to make sure everything was truly nice and smooth, and that all the drum sander, blade, and router marks were gone. Then it was glue-up time, using Titebond’s liquid hide glue:

Glue-up time!

Why liquid hide glue?

I prefer to use liquid hide glue for the following reasons:

It acts as a great “lubricant”, and it actually helps the joinery slide in much more easily when the fit is a bit on the tight side, as finger joints must be.
It has a very long open time; this is perfect when I have many areas to cover. Just take one look at the corners on this little cabinet — it has a bunch of finger joints, and glue must be applied to every one of them with an acid brush.
Liquid hide glue, like its counterpart, hot hide glue, can be repaired, unlike modern yellow glues.
Liquid hide glue will not interfere with the Waterlox varnish I will apply as the finish.

Clamping

Clamping is a must when using finger joint joinery. I don’t use cauls when I use the Bessey clamps, as I have installed cork with packing tape over the cork; this keeps the glue from sticking to the clamp/cork surfaces. Eliminating the cauls simplifies the glue-up. I recommend you do this, too.

Joint clean-up

Following the glue-up, I always use a scraper, to remove the excess glue. Then I use a hand plane to flush the fingers to the rest of the board:

The best way to get the fingers flush to the boards: a hand plane.

In this case I sanded all surfaces, following the hand plane. The reason: all boards have a lot of figure, and I did not want to run the risk of tear-out. Sanding was truly my friend this time.

Time for doors

Once the glue set, it was time to start on the doors. The book-matched door boards were well acclimated to the shop environment, and they were ready to cut just oversize at the table saw. Then I trimmed them to size on the shooting board:

Trimming the doors to height on the shooting board.

Next: trim the doors to width, make the hinges and the door pulls, and install the hinges. Only then will this cabinet be ready for the finish.

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, Box making, D4R Pro, Design, Education, F3 finger joint, Finger joints, Jigs, Joinery, Mortise, Shooting board, Tenon

May 4, 2011 By Al Navas

In the groove

The machine work was finished; now it was time to do a little fine tuning of the groove to accept the back. The ¼-inch chisel was perfect, as it was sharp and ready:

Adjusting groove length to accept the back.

Book-matched and shiplapped black walnut boards installed for the back:

The book-matched, shiplapped boards cut to size and in place.

Now it is getting close to glue-up time — just one more dry fit, to make sure everything’s OK:

Look from the back of the cabinet.

Time to work on the hinges prior to glue-up. I will machine the grooves for the hinges, and try the fit. Only then will it be time to glue up this little cabinet. Please stand by!

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, Box making, Design, Education, Joinery

May 3, 2011 By Al Navas

Attend a course to learn to make the tricky Chinese stool

Yesterday I posted a short article, showing the cursed three-legged Chinese stool made by our Guild President, Tim Streeby. And, in case you missed it, Bob Lang, Executive Editor at Popular Woodworking, left a Comment on the blog; he wrote that he will be teaching a course at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, on August 27-28. If you want to build the stool with Bob, this is your chance! How cool is that?

If you wish to sign up for the course, and also read other information about it, make sure to read the class announcement at the Marc Adams web site.

In case you are on the fence about this, I show one more time the stool made by Tim Streeby, to nudge you toward signing up:

The tricky Chinese stool, by Tim Streeby, our Guild President.

If you wish to avoid total frustration, I suggest you consider signing up for the course. Or, if you are masochistic, go ahead and try building one on your own. Just don’t leave me a nasty Comment if you have a headache because you screwed up the project. Just like Schwarz and Lang did

By the way, I am not associated in any way with the Marc Adams school. I wrote this as a PSA (Public Service Announcement), because Bob Lang is a a friend, and the Marc Adams School of Woodworking is terrific.