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Trying something new

April 26, 2011 By

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any other one thing.

— Abraham Lincoln

After only one try, my first and only try, this is where I am with a multiple mortise & tenon joint:

Multiple mortise & tenon joint, made with the Leigh M2 jig.

One try. I expect that practice will allow me to perfect the joint using a new jig, the M2 multiple mortise & tenon jig. I am determined to make this work, and to make the gaps disappear. I machined five tenons; based on experience, fitting only two will be much easier with a little more practice. I will nail it tomorrow, or the day after. But I will nail it.

How about you?

  • Do you give up easily, if success does not happen on the first try?
  • Or do you become obsessed with making something succeed, and practice, practice, practice…?

— Al Navas

 

Filed Under: Blog, Box making, Design, Jigs, Joinery, Leigh jig, M2, Mortise, Tenon Tagged With: , , ,

Using a dovetail jig to align edges on work pieces

April 22, 2011 By

Working with large glued-up panels to make a piece of furniture can be a challenge. But we can use the jig used to cut the joinery to our advantage, to get perfect edge registration. That is what I did when building the cradle. One reader asked how I did it; I explain below, using a few photographs. Click on all images to enlarge them.

The sides of the cradle were 37 inches long – I cut all the joinery on these boards using the Leigh D4R dovetail jig:

Cutting the pins on one of the sides.

This is the view as I looked at one of the side boards, after cutting the pins – notice the tapered fingers on the finger assembly point toward the user (to cut the tails, the finger assembly will be turned such that the rounded edges of the finger assembly point toward the user):

The pins cut; now to align the head and foot boards.


Since both the head panel and the foot panel are curved, they cannot be placed against the side stop on the dovetail jig; they must be placed far enough from the stops to ensure the curve allows perfect alignment of the edge of the panel under the finger assembly of the jig. The foot and head panels are perfectly vertical once the cradle is assembled; which makes edge alignment easy. In creating the layout on the finger assembly I made sure I stayed well away from the side stops on the jig.

To accomplish perfect edge registration, I clamped one of the curved panels in the jig, and inserted the already-cut pins (the side panels) into the tails side of the finger assembly, until they “locked” in the fingers. Then I moved the curved panel until the edge registered perfectly on the edge of the side panel, and marked the position on the backer board under the finger assembly.

The following photo will make this a bit clearer – you can see the pencil marks on the white oak board, at the edges of the curved panel under the finger assembly (the clamp bar is straight – the curvature is the result of the wide angle setting on the lens of the camera):

Using the D4R jig to align the tails boards.

The dovetails on the edge of the curved panels are cut on the edge registered for its corresponding edge of the side panels. It was just a simple matter to keep track of which edge corresponded with which other edge.

I am a firm believer in using the tools to get better accuracy. This worked well, and the edges of the cradle aligned perfectly.

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, D4R Pro, Design, Dovetails, Jigs, Joinery Tagged With: , , ,

An easy glue-up with great results

April 7, 2011 By

Preparation for the cradle glue-up involved several dry runs, to cover every eventuality that might come up. In the end I did not use cauls on the corners, as the I have cork on the clamp heads:

Cradle glue-up image: an easy glue-up!

I cannot remember a previous glue-up of a large carcase going as smoothly as this one. Not only did the joinery slide nicely and easily, but it was tight. And all corners were perfectly square:

Making sure everything is square.

 

I used blue tape to hold in place the thin spacers I made to get proper spacing for the shiplapped boards:

Blue tape holds the spacers between the bottom boards.

Now that everything is in place I can drill the sides and shape the handles. I wanted the entire carcase assembled so I can get the center of gravity accurately. In my opinion this is required, as I always like the client to not have any surprises when lifting an item. If the center of gravity is off, it can result in unpleasant results and even injury if the cradle or other heavy item tilts unexpectedly.

Stand by for further work. As I near completion, I can feel the crescendo that normally peaks as I apply the last coats of finish on a project. My hands are itching to get to the finishing process to get this one ready, in the event the baby calls early!

Read more articles on the build of this cradle by clicking on this link.

— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Design, Dovetails, Joinery Tagged With: , , ,

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