Today I revamped the Lignum Vitae hinges for the swing-out leg assembly. This process involved a trip to the local hardwood supplier to buy a 1′ length of Wenge, which I fashioned into a square and straight 1.75″ x 2.0″ section, divided into two 6″ lengths. Then I headed over to George’s place to spend a little time on his cute old Monarch lathe:
Here’s the original Lignum Vitae hinge piece, shortened down and locked in the three-jaw chuck:
Then it was time for the chips to fly!:
It took a matter of 15 minutes and I wad done. The result was a longer spindle with the original 0.75″ tenon at one end:
With the Wedge pieces I mentioned above, I drilled deep holes, starting with a Forstner and finishing with a top-bearing router bit.
Now it was time to check the fit of the Wenge receivers with the newly-turned Lignum Vitae spindles:
All was well at this stage:
Out with the near-dead 240mm saw, to trim the Wenge pieces a bit shorter – as you will see in the following picture, that wonky tooth finally gave up and dropped out onto the top of the wood:
Maybe if I put that tooth under my pillow tonight the tooth fairly will leave me enough money for a new saw!
Next it was time to form the tenon on the end, here’s the first step:
After step 2 in the process, the tenons were defined:
Then I planed the pieces to exact size, testing them for fit in the relevant cross-pieces as I went along:
The Wenge pieces were then complete, edges and corners lightly chamfered:
Then I epoxied the pins into place, keeping them aligned to the pieces with my combo square, and at the precise depth using my caliper:
After the oiling, the parts were ready (I accelerated the oil drying process by using a forced air heater):
I think these are an improvement on the first ones I made. They’d better be, ’cause there’s no going back!
That’s all for today folks – I hope to see you next time when I commence final assembly of the battari-shōgi. I can hardly wait! Thanks for dropping by today. Next post is number 16