Screen Play (27)

Just rounding third and into the stretch for home plate, to use a baseball analogy. Post 27 in this build thread detailing the design and construction of a Japanese movable room partition, a tsuitate as this type is called.

Here’s a look at the upper frame after the profiling is complete and during a recent assembly:

In the fitting process I discovered that the lower frame crosspiece dado was a slightly tight fit for the panels, so I eased it using a couple of Lie Neilsen side rebate planes:

To tell the truth, I wished I had used my router table for that, as I found the plane hold-down mechanism for the blade bruised the opposite side of the dado. That necessitated planing the upper surface of the stick down a bit more, and fortunately I had a little extra meat on there so it was no big deal.

Here’s one of the lattice frames assembled, and laid onto the main frame so as to enable the end cuts of the bars to be marked out:

Another view:

Then I trimmed the grill bars to length, chamfered the ends and fitted it into the frame. Then I fitted the middle panel into place and did an assembly with just that one side of the lattice in place:

I think the Bubinga and Mahogany work well together:

I plan to leave the oil off the grill bars and just oil the frame and feet.

Next it was time to superimpose the one fitted lattice frame to the other side, using the first as a dimensional template to mark the other one for length:

Then it was time to trim the excess bits from the other lattice frame members:

Following that, it was time to work on fitting the two side panels:

These panels were both a bit tight in their respective dadoes, and I decided to take the edges of the panels down a bit in dimension instead of mess around with the frame dadoes. With a digital caliper such matters are relatively straightforward, though a lot of elbow grease was involved in the scrape out and re-oiling. Eventually the side panels were made to come to an accommodating arrangement with the frame dadoes, and the assembly went together with a little coaxing.

I’m now going to leave, as a bit of a surprise, the overall assembled view of the piece, as it might leave the final pictures as a bit of an anti-climax. So, next is a look at fitting the shachi-sen, which are the wedged-pins for fixing the corner joints together. Here’s one of the critters:

In it goes:

These pins are parallelogram in cross-section and slightly tapered in two directions, so they need to be made with care and attention.

Here are a pair of them 2/3 of the way in (this is only a test fit):

I also marked out the tenons on the lower frame members for the pegs, which will require the frame be taken apart again. Once apart, I will mortise for the pegs, start in on the oiling, and affix my makers’ mark somewhere. Then it will be the final assembly, drive the pegs and wedges in and trim them cleanly. Hope you come back for that.

Thanks for dropping by today! –> go to post 28