It began with a friend deciding his mother needed a basic timber step-stool. An offer of help by a friendly cabinet maker soon followed. What unfolded was one of the most enjoyable learning exercises I have taken part in. We ran well over-schedule, but we learnt a lot:
Original design was just a box. But, it was argued, if we are going to go to all this trouble, why not make a nice looking box. This meant more than just polishing it up, it meant incorporating design elements that would be visually appealing. Clean lines, curves, and so forth. Drawings became necessary (we had no drawing to start with, as it was just going to be a box) ... soon measurements were being taken and pencilled in. Tape measures and rulers were being applied to timber and body parts. Ideas were forming.
2) Timber selection and preparation
The timber had to be sound and dry. But as we would be joining boards side-on, what about matching the grain as closely as possible. This was to look good, and as glue is not a gap-filler, the edges of those boards were hand-planed flat! Front and rear faces were worked with a cabinet scraper until smooth.
3) Glueing up the boards
Glue was lovingly applied and the boards clamped and set aside. That was the first Saturday morning taken up.
4) Cutting the box joints
Box joints were cut using a custom jig over the table saw with a Dado blade wide enough to cut each tooth out in a single pass.
5) Cutting out the curves
After some freehand curve slicing practice, the boards were fed under the bandsaw to cut out the curves in the base.
6)The mortise and tenon reinforcing
Mortice and tenon were cut out and cleaned up using razor sharp chisels. Numerous sharpness tests were conducted to ensure hairs on the back of our fingers were coming off cleanly before chisels went anywhere near the timber. Japanese wetstones and a strop were used to bring cutting edges to a mirror polish. The tenon and box joints were glued in place and any tiny gaps sealed using finely sanded slivers of timber and glue. These were then flush cut back using a Japanese style dowel saw.
7) Sanding, Dyeing and Finishing
Belt and orbital sanders brought the box joints to a flush finish, followed by an all over sanding with progressively finer grades of paper. Aniline dye was applied - the first half was applied to the interior of the toyota corolla, confirming the first 5 warnings that aniline dye stains. Remainder of dye was applied to the workpiece and progress resumed at its regular steady pace. Numerous coats of shellac followed, as did a minor disaster possibly caused by a contaminated brush. More sanding. More Dyeing. More shellac. The piece was ready for a coat of polyurethane for weather resistance.
8) Final Polishing
0000 grade steel wool and carnauba wax was used to rub the polyurethane back slightly. Thoughts about one more weekend polishing it were put aside, and we finally concurred that it was ready, and way too good to be a stepstool. Friend`s mother could, afterall, find herself an old box to stand on.
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