i milled up the wood for the base of the stereo cabinet about a week ago. it's been sitting under the bench and hasn't moved much at all. so i left it and hand planed the snipe off of one side of each short piece in order to glue up some blocks for the short parts of the base. it planed quite nicely even if it was rowed. this wood is kind of funny. the faces are heavily rowed, and yet the edges seem to have more of the flat sawn look to them. curious, since it's almost perfectly rift sawn.
the blocks went together nicely, a little bit of squeeze out all the way around. the end grain has got a nice bookmatch happening as well. there's also a nice little bit of lighter wood towards the bottom of the joint. but, i've been using a whole lot of clamps a whole lot, and my hands hurt. i'm happy to be over the hump of massive laminations, i took the clamps off of the second arm of the sofa i'm building today as well. i'll post about that latter.
so this is about where i'm at. this is my new way of mocking up. using the actual part that were kept long and big to try and see what would work. i did this for the top and bottom overhangs of the cabinet. it was nice to be able to quickly move the piece around and get a view of what reality could be without having to do a mockup with other wood. i was thinking of putting a bit of curve or angle on the ends of the members and having a half lap joint to seat the long rails into the floor members. then i'm either going to use brass tabs that i'll make up, or some short rails going between the long rails directly underneath the cabinet to attach the base to the cabinet. i'm a little worried about this thing being picked up from the cabinet and not from the base. the base is going to end up being a little heavy weight wise, and i wouldn't want it to dislodge itself from the cabinet. i think i'm going to finish this up while the rail stock for the sofa is settling. i've milled it twice already and though that i would give it the weekend to chill a little.
4 comments:
Brass buttons would work great for fastening the base to the cabinet I would think.
It looks good so far.
Man I was bringing my stretchers to final dimension tonight after letting them sit for a week. On one of them I had to take about 1/4 inch on the band saw and the whole piece immediately bowed 3/16ths over its length! On the bench that was way too much. I couldn't believe it. So far the white oak I have been using can be either super stable or super crazy!
yeah i know the white oak can be weird sometimes. i often have troubled deciding which way to plane the damed stuff. lately i've been going with the way of the flecks and it's been working out ok, so far.
where did you get your oak? in vancouver? i had to get most of mine from a and m. i was a little disappointed with some of the stock they sent me, but i guess that's what happens when you order a mass quantity.
Apparently there has been a lot of oak on the market that was salvaged during the ice storm of 2000 out east, and it's supposed ridiculously unstable.
As far as working with white oak, I recommend a 120 grit plane.
Pete used brass buttons on his alter, worked great.
yeah, the white oak situation... i got one board from a&m that had a nasty hidden wind check in it. it's too bad, it was the nicest board they sent me, but i was able to get past most of the severe parts while i cut out my rails from the plank.
i hear you on the 120 grit plane, i've got one of those and they work great. you can go from the dewalt planer with sharp knives to the paper no problem...
i've also used brass tabs on some projects with good results. i just feel uneasy about how heavy this base is going to be. i don't know what the holding power of the fir is going to be like in the long run.
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