Back to the current work on the track and sliding doors for the middle room of the Machiya located in the Boston Children’s museum (BCM). Last time, I had re-sawn, jointed and planed stock for the stiles, rails, and shiki-i (sliding track), all a few millimeters over dimension. The next shop session I checked the pieces to see if they were still straight, re-jointed as necessary, and planed the parts to about 0.3mm over finish dimension. Then the parts were super-surfaced to exact size. Then the stiles and rails were dadoed for the panels:
Also, at this stage, lines were marked indicating rail junctions and mortise locations for the panel battens:
The shiki-i, which I chose to make out of Honduran Mahogany, was similarly planed to dimension and then super-surfaced to exact size. Then a coat of water-based stain was applied:
Though the stain is water-based, the cleanly sliced cells of the wood from surfacing mean that the grain is not raised.
A day later, after some careful calibration, I used my groover to cut the dadoes in the track for the doors:
David Pye’s notion of ‘workmanship of risk’ was clear to me again, anytime I use the groover – the tool must be perfectly guided as any slight deviation or pressure can result in a spoiled cut in a blink of an eye. Fortunately, all went well, and here I’m wrapping up the second pass:
Later, the piece received more stain, and is still wet in the following photo:
One coat is in fact sufficient, however I find a second coat gives a very slightly more even appearance.
The rails connect to the stiles by way of twin tenons and have a mitered return on the front face. here I’m rough-cutting the tenons:
Result:
A while later all eight rail tenons sets were rough cut:
I’ll pare the shoulders with a guide block next time, and trim the tenons the the required height.
The stiles were then mortised for their battens:
Another round in the shop should see me through the remainder of the joinery work. Stay tuned for more and thanks for visiting the Carpentry Way. Post 3 in this series is next.