Post 26 in an ongoing series describing the design and construction of a kabukimon, a type of Japanese gate.
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Started out today with making the end cuts on the 11.25″x13.75″ main posts – two cuts with the Makita and the end is trimmed, the goal being to have the two cuts be very closely in plane so minimal clean up is required afterward. Let’s have a look-see then.
First cross cut done on the right side post:
And number 2, same post:
A check on the post top, but most if not all of it will be under the large copper cap to be fitted later. I’ll probably epoxy the crack closed though.
Some clean up with a hand plane is in order – then, when I was done I realized that as this was the top of the post, and to be covered with the copper cap, the planing was, uh, unnecessary:
Oh well, it was good exercise at least. Note that you can see a touch of sapwood at the bottom left corner of the end grain shown in the pic. I had asked at the mill for the timbers to be free of sapwood, however they did not bat 100% in that regard. The sapwood portion does not, however, run the length of the stick.
Another post, another pair of cuts:
You can see by the end grain that this post came from a bigger log than did its partner.
This is the bottom surface of the post, so the surface needs to be flat and square:
Last one on post two came out fine also:
This is the top of the stick, so the surface flatness is less critical, though I still cleaned it up afterwards with a hand plane.
Next up were the mortises in the beam for the stub tenons associated to the kabuki and magusa:
Another view:
The above pic shows the orientation of the mortise as it will be in the field. The stub tenons are at the base of the kabuki. As you can see, the stub tenon mortises are asymmetrical on this side of the post. There’s a reason for that.
The other little mortise you see is for the magusa, which is a door header fitted directly below the kabuki (the main crossbeam):
While cleaning up the mortises I had a sweet little end grain pare happen:
It’s a keeper.
(not really)
The other post through the same stage:
Still a little clean out to do in the main mortise, however I’ll wait to do that just prior to trial fitting. Most of the waste has been trimmed out.
Trimming the slot mortises continued on the kabuki:
And at the end of the day I made a start on the nose piece tenons, which are fairly long suckers:
Looks like a giant pair of silicone ear plugs at this stage. That’s it, I’m getting into sculpture now.
(probably not)
All for today – thanks for dropping by the Carpentry Way. How about sidling over to post 27?