Shipping Out

This is Monday, so I spent the morning producing the weekly radio program. I was a little worried when I saw the title since I’m sort of a technological guy. After lunch I installed the turn buttons on all five flag cases. These parts arrived over the weekend. I'll need to ready Dan’s case for shipment. The first step in this is to acquire or make a box. The trick is to get one that is big enough to allow for sufficient packing, but not so big as to inflate shipping costs unnecessarily. I often end up making a box by cutting down one that is over-sized. In this case I can use the corner of a large sturdy box. I use Styrofoam to stabilize the glass so it doesn’t crack from road vibration which can set up harmonics that reach past the cushioning. Then pack it into the box. I like using these air pillows where I can because they offer a lot of cushioning and weigh next to nothing. And I happen to have a good supply of them stored up from materials orders I’ve received. We have to mail order nearly everything we use here. Once the box is taped up I weigh it, measure it and go into the office to process the shipment and print the shipping label. Now it’s ready for the FedEx man to pick up on his next trip through our neck of the woods. The other four cases are posted to our web site and area ready for purchase if anyone else would like to have one. There are one each in Maple, Cherry, Walnut, and Oak. We'll use this set as a yardstick to know whether or not we'll be building any more, now that we're our of the custom furniture business. More on that in another post. It's time to clean up, button up and head home.

Finishing Up

This morning I started by sanding smooth the spline stumps that were left to sit overnight so the glue would set up hard. Then I cut out squares of plywood from a 4x8 foot sheet and adapted my big cut-off sled so it would cut the squares of plywood into two equal triangles for the flag case back panels. Next I ran the panels through the wide drum sander to smooth them out. I could do this with my random orbit sander except it’s really hard to clamp a triangle onto the bench well enough that it won’t vibrate loose as I sand. I think the drum sander may be just a little bit faster too, when doing multiple pieces like this. Then I fit the panels to the cases. I cut them just a tad large and use the jointer on the longest edge (bottom) to skim away just enough for a good fit. It has to be able to be removed, so it can’t be too tight, but I don’t it to slop around in its rabbet either. With the help of a simple spacer jig I locate where pilot holes for the screws that will hold the feet on need to go, drill those holes and mount the feet. The final piece of construction is to bore shallow 3/8” holes in the back of each corner and glue a screw hole button into each. All these do is to hold the case up a bit so if it is laid on it’s back the turn buttons that will hold the back panel in place will not scratch the table top. I close out the day by working on finish sanding and spraying on the first coat of lacquer. I got three done before it was time to head home for the evening. I’ll spend the day tomorrow completing the finishing.

Case Decoration

I’ll kick-off the day today by routing the decorative ogee on the front edges of the flag cases. This is a fairly deep cut, so I make it in three steps to avoid tear-out and burning of the wood. Then I cut the filler strips I made yesterday to length and finish sand them to width so they fit into the slot in the bottom of the cases. This covers the slot where the glass will slide in and makes it possible to replace the glass should it be broken. Next I dig out the two sleds I made up when I made Dan’s first flag case – and had the foresight to save despite my vow to be less of a pack-rat. These hold the cases vertically so I can run them over the table saw blade to cut slots into which I’ll glue splines. Two sleds, one for the 90° apex angle and one for the two 45° lower angles. On this batch I’ll cut two slots, spaced attractively. Then I begin gluing spline stock into the slots. I use dark woods in the light cases and light woods in the dark cases to provide an attractive contrast, making the splines a decorative touch as well as reinforcing the joints. After giving the glue in each set of splines a while to set up, I trim off the excess stock and glue the strip into the next set of splines. Repeat for the final corners. When those too are trimmed off I’ll let them sit overnight and sand the spline stumps smooth in the morning.

Case Assembly

I’ll start the day by trimming the parts blanks I made yesterday to finished length. To be sure the ends are square, I’ll cut a bit off each end, but where the two side pieces meet at the top I shave off just a little so the grain pattern is disturbed as little as possible, that way the grain will flow up up one side and down the other. I set up the chop saw to cut the 45 degree miters at the apex corners. To set the stop block I get it close, then schooch it in a hair at a time until the point of the miter is right at the edge of the board, don’t want to remove any length of the board. To make the 22-1/2 degree cuts I set up the table saw with the blade set at 67-1/2 degrees (90 degrees minus 22-1/2 degrees) mount the rip fence on the wrong side of the blade and attach my shop made tenoning jig to the fence backwards. Stand each board in the jig, make sure it’s sitting flat on the table saw top, clamp it in position and carefully make the cut. A little masking tape allows me to test fit the first case. If adjustments are needed, it’s best to figure that out before all the parts are cut. No adjustments were needed. Next I cut the little rabbet in the inside-back edge of each piece where the plywood back panel will sit. I do this by setting the blade ¼” high and set the fence so the OUTSIDE edge of the blade teeth are ¼” from the face of the saw. One pass with the board face down, flip it up on edge and run it again to complete the rabbet. I also cut a groove on each inside face that the glass will slide into. After sanding the inside faces, I’m ready to glue up the cases. I start by applying glue to the miters, being careful to stay back from the inside edges; glue squeeze-out in those tight corners would be a bear to clean up. Then I attach the three pieces of the case together with strips of masking tape… …set the assembly up on edge and wind it around into a triangle. Another strip of tape at the final corner holds it in shape while I clamp the corners together with – more masking tape! Yes, masking tape. If the joints are cut well, it doesn’t take much pressure to hold the joints together while the glue sets, so I apply some pressure with one hand, and stretch a piece of tape across the joint with the other. Do this on both edges of each joint and it’s done. I stack the completed cases and let the glue dry for a while. While I wait for the glue to set up a bit I mill out the small pieces needed for the feet and the filler strips that hold the glass in once installed. That doesn’t take nearly as long as the glue does, so I go find something else to fiddle with for a while.

Once the glue has tacked up, I set up the router table with a ¼” up-cut end mill bit and set the fence so the ¼” wide groove will be centered over the 1/8” groove cut from the inside of the case. This slot will house the filler strip that holds the glass securely in place. And that pretty much uses up this day. Tomorrow I’ll do some decorative routing and make the little bits. See you then!

Starting the flag cases

It's Monday so I spent the morning producing the weekly radio program for WGSN radio.

After lunch I selected stock, I roughed out the pieces, jointed them, surface planed them and ripped them to finished width. By the end of the afternoon I have parts blanks for 5 flag cases, 2 in walnut (Dan had ordered one of these) 1 in red oak, one in cherry,and one in maple. The extras will be posted to our web site when completed.

The design is compliments of the Diablo Woodworking Club.