7th installment.
With the corner joint mortise and tenon work complete, I now moved on to the mitered returns at the frame corners. While the returns can be done top and bottom, since the bench spends most of it’s time in the down position, and the budget does not allow for me to spend inordinate amounts of time on this, I am only processing these returns on the top edge.
It was time for the sayonara saw performance for one of my 240mm ryobas:
Who is that slack-jawed punk? Fortunately the picture was taken before I had begun to drool. I need to work on looking more photogenic for these sorts of sawing pictures, or else my membership in the Sawing for Teens executive club might be in jeapardy.
The short side frame members now have their returns rough-sawn:
Then on to the long side frame rails, rip cuts first:
The saw liked to bind in the cut after it was in about a couple of centimeters- part of that is the saw is a bit dull and the kerf it produces is narrower than it might normally be, and the saw heats up quickly, and part of that is the Wenge, which saws with a quality akin to cement.
After that unpleasantness, time for some oblique cross cuts in the top edges:
Rough cuts complete:
I next cobbled together an MDF jig so I could use a router to process the miter cuts more precisely:
The result of the preliminary routing pass:
Step two in this phase was to groove the abutment of the miter for the lip on the male half:
The male halves after processing is complete:
Time to do a trial assembly of the frame:
Here’s the miter at one corner:
Once together, the little protrusion of the male mitered lip will be trimmed flush.
Here’s another corner, after the bit is trimmed off:
The joints came out pretty well over all, and I only needed to fiddle one corner a few minutes. It was nice to have this stage go so smoothly.
The tenons are left about 0.25″ long at this point – I have decided that they will finish off flush to the surface after wedging:
Another view:
There’s a little space under the male lip of the male return in this spot, but I can live with it. It needs to have a tiny bit of space at that location, but that is a tiny bit more of a gap than I would have liked. The long side rails are long of the joints by about 1/16″ at this point but will end up flush to the adjacent face.
The frame assembled pretty cleanly:
Tomorrow I will fit the intermediate cross-pieces and start working on the fold-out leg assembly and wooden hinges. Thanks for dropping by today. Next up: post 8
I need to take a joinery class from you some day. Inspiring, for sure.
Hey Dale,
I haven't taught any joinery classes as of yet – do you think there might be some interest in something like that? I have taught a few workshops on carpentry drawing over the past few years, and it has occurred to me that there might be some demand out there for information on the “basics” of Japanese joinery. More demand, I suppose, than for carpentry drawing. Food for thought anyhow.
Glad you are feeling inspired!
~Chris
Sure, I bet there are a number of people who follow your Blog would be interested. I think Charlie Maestro would be one of those. I have a couple of Japanese joinery books I have worked from and they are good but a hands on class would be much better. The way you incorporate Japanese joinery into your furniture design and construction is very interesting. The selection, layout and sizing of such joinery for furniture would make for a great class or topic for your Blog.
Very inspiring joinery, indeed! Enjoying these posts immensely.
Well Dale and Chris classes are a topic of discussion around here on a daily basis. I've been trying to teach classes here for 3 or 4 months now and last night got my very first response. Now this mind you is for beginning hand tool workshop that I have been teaching in Seattle for over 25 years. I have taken classes with both Japanese carpenters I worked with in Seattle and yes there is nothing better than a hands on class of any kind. I was very fortunate to have worked two very skilled men who really changed the way I look at woodworking.
Now in answer to the question about Chris teaching a class on joinery, DUH! It's a great idea and I can't believe Chris hasn't given it some thought before now. I mean what is it he's doing right here everyday?
By all means Chris should offer a class, somewhere! I would think there could be interest at the Bennett Street School or Rhode Island School of Design or somewhere near MA.
Mary and I have talked about inviting people interested in some kind of Japanese Joinery workshop out here to our ranch for a week long gathering and if I could get my bigger shop built we would actually have a place to hold it.
We've been throwing this idea for a few months but just not sure how to go about it and how much interest there would be in it. What does anyone out there think about it?
I too would be interested in a joinery class, as well as a carpentry drawing class. And if I haven't made it explicitly clear yet, I'm also interested in your essays once they become available. Thanks for all the great work!
-Matt
Well,
thanks again for the supportive comments gentlemen. I have made entreaties, over the past year, to a few different craft schools, in the hope of setting up a Japanese joinery class or two, all to no avail so far. One of them, Yestermorrow up in Vermont, asked me for a list of course proposals (after several rounds of cajoling from me). I then sent them a list of ideas, and haven't heard back from them since, despite a couple of follow-ups from me. Another craft school in Connecticut, the most recent I wrote to, didn't bother to reply.
One day, as my dream goes, I will have a spacious shop of my own design, and be able to host workshops from time to time. I live in a pretty nice spot, an there are a lot of woodworkers in the immediate New England area to draw from. I've always been willing to travel anywhere to teach as well. So, maybe it will happen one day – right now I'm concentrating on getting that first essay out the door (sorry for the wait folks, but the re-editing takes forever!) and completing the above project. I'm hoping 2010 is a better year than the previous one for work, that's for sure!
~Chris