Base Plate

I started out this morning by pulling the clamps off of the 2nd half panel I glued up yesterday and using a flush plane to cut away the glue ridge on both faces. This saves wear and tear on the planer blades.

Then both half panels and the seat extension piece took a few trips through the surface planer. The base plate is made up of 5 planks of wood, one “half” panel has 2 planks the other 3, the 3 plank piece just barely fits through the planer. This process smooths away any ridges resulting from misalignments between the planks and brings all pieces down to exactly the right thickness.

Next I joint the two half panels and glue & clamp them together, paying particular attention to the alignment of the center joint; fairing that on out will have to be done by hand.

While the glue on that is drying I bandsaw the rockers to shape. This is a bit tricky because of the odd shapes and occasional tight curves. I cut just outside of the lines to leave a little wood for removal of the saw marks.

That is done on by stationary belt sander. I start with a 60b grit belt and grind then to shape, then switch to a 100 grit belt followed by a 120 grit belt to smooth the rockers out.

The glue on the base plate is set up now, so I remove the clamps, trim off the glue ridge then rip it to finished width on the table saw. Then I mount the big crosscut sled and trim it to finished length. The sled helps me to get the ends square and even.

Finally I attach the seat extension piece to the front edge where the rocking chair portion will be with glue and clamps. This will set over night.

I close out the afternoon by working on a bid request for four, nine foot tall dresser/shelving units. These are part of fancy walk-in closets in a house being built in Maryland and the contractor needs a price ASAP.

Doug