First, the material that will make up the riser is glued together.
Then, dress down the glued-up panel to a flat surface and a consistent thickness. In a shop with a big planer, this involves nothing more than feeding the stock into the machine; but in a small shop, like mine, this 15" panel must be flattened and smoothed with hand planes.
Then, dress down the glued-up panel to a flat surface and a consistent thickness. In a shop with a big planer, this involves nothing more than feeding the stock into the machine; but in a small shop, like mine, this 15" panel must be flattened and smoothed with hand planes.
If the boards used to create the panel were all flat and all aligned correctly at glue-up, you may not need to do more than scrape away the glue squeeze-out and make a couple of token passes with a jack plane. However, boards are rarely flat, often undulating along their lengths like bacon. In such cases, more substantial plane work may be needed.
I begin by exchanging the regular iron in my jack plane for one that's been crowned across its width. This shape eliminates the sharp corners on either side of the iron's width, corners that can dig too deeply into the planed surface when the craftsman is attempting to remove material quickly. With this crowned iron, it's relatively easy to remove significant amounts of thickness. It does, however, leave a rippled, rather than smooth, surface, so it must be followed by a plane fit with a conventional iron.
Next, cut the grooves into which the scrollwork will be inset. You can cut the groove across the bottom face of the top panel in one pass over a table saw fit with a 3/8" stack of dado cutters. But the grooves in the two end panels must be handled differently. Because the scrollwork is only two inches high, stopped grooves are necessary.
You can cut these freehand with a mallet and chisel or start them on the table saw and finish them by hand.
The scroll is then thicknessed, ripped to width, and profiled on the band saw.
Following the procedure discussed in chapter twentyfive, cut the through dovetails joining the end and top panels. Then, glue-up the riser around the strip of scrollwork, and plug the holes in the ends of the grooves.
Cutting A Stopped Groove On The Table Saw
1.
To match the 2" height of the scrollwork, the groove must stop 23/8" from the top of the end panels. The extra 3/8" provides for the 3/4" top minus the 3/8" groove cut into that top. The arrow penciled on the fence marks a point 2 3/8" past the leading edge of the dado cutters.
2.
When the end panel is fed into the cutters as far as the penciled arrow, the cutters have advanced the groove 2 3/8". (Due to the circular shape of the dado cutters, a bit of material will remain in the end of the groove. This is removed with a chisel.)
Gluing-Up Panels
1.
Matching figure and color is the first step. Here, two walnutboards with sapwood edges are being matched.
2.
These two pieces of cherry were both cut from the same board, assuring a consistent color. Also, making the joint at the edges of the board where the lines of figure cluster close together helps to produce an invisible glue line.
3.
A wash of mineral spirits reveals color, enabling you to achieve better matches.
4.
Once you have matched (or, as in this case, contrasted) color and grain, form glue joints (the lowly butt joints) on the edges of each board. These joints consist of nothing more than flat, straight planes 90° from the board's adjacent surfaces.
You can create the joint by hand, using a jack or jointing plane. However, this is fussy work requiring experience and a steady hand. You can also create the joint on the jointer, a stationary power tool designed to perform this very task.
After cutting the joints, coat each edge with glue and align them in pipe or bar clamps. These are necessary in order to bring the joints tightly together.
Clamp arrangement should follow the pattern shown above. Position them no more than 12"-15" apart on alternate sides of the panel. After a couple of hours, you can remove them; within eight hours, you can work the panel.
Materials List :
A.
Top
1
pcs
¾ x 15 x 19 ¾
B.
End
2
pcs
¾ x 15 x 9 7/8
C.
Scroll
1
pcs
3/8 x 2 x 19
D.
Plug
2
pcs
3/8 x 3/8 x 3/8, shaved to fit
*These are net measurements. Surplus length should be added to all dovetaild parts to allow them to be sanded flush.
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