Much more work done today, but again not
quite as much as I'd hoped. But first some catching up:
Rod: Yes, figured sells better than plain. However, in this case i did glue a patch to the inside of one of the chest side pieces. The remaining piece is just a little too flimsy.
Bob: No oil on the glued parts, which are limited to the mortises and tenons on the benches. Even there I'm not really depending on the glue long-term. Instead, what will hold is the wedges in the tenons, with a little support from the pegs in the rails. More pics below. The benches themselves are extremely strong. One has been run over by a pickup truck and I was able to repair it with a dutchman in the top plus a new rail, and another one was the only piece of furniture to survive when a tornado obliterated my sister-in-law's house.
Terry: Nope, it's a Canon Powershot A510 from 2005, and until this morning the friggin' clock battery inside was dead. I finally got a new battery today so I don't have to reset the time every time I turn it on.
This morning I started by cutting dadoes in the chest legs to hold the bottoms and the tills:
After further sanding and oiling, I set the parts aside to concentrate on the benches.
First off was to get the tenons ready to be wedged. Here I'm cutting a slot in the tenons of one leg:
This slot is fairly close to the end-side of the tenon so the wood will bend that way. The twin-screw vise makes this much easier since the leg can be held near the cut point and is fully supported all the way across. This is my secondary bench, and is really too light for this vise. But it works for now.
Then some test fitting:
The tenons fit well, but the legs are less splayed than usual. However, since they're both about the same, they'll work.
The rails were a little too wide, so I took about 3/16" off by ripping on the table saw. Hey look--a 1930's
American saw with a riving knife! Who'd a thunk it?:) (It's an Oliver 232 14" saw, by the way.)
Ready to assemble:
Wedging:
Pegging the rails:
Sawing off the tenons:
You have to stay out of the way of that saw when it breaks through the cut. That dozuki is sharp!
After the first bench, I repeated the process on the second one. Then after dinner, I went back out and started assembling the first chest:
This chest is entirely nailed together with cut nails. These have to be pre-drilled to avoid splitting the wood, but hold quite well. Here's a side being pre-drilled:
On this particular box I'm using cast iron handles and sheet steel (allegedly forged) strap hinges from Lee Valley. I usually get hinges and handles from my blacksmith, but I'm down to one set and they'll go on the other chest. I put the handles on before assembly--it causes some cleanup issues, but the hammering is less of a problem done this way.
Clinching the nails:
These will never pull out. In fact, if you've made a mistake and have to move a handle, they're a major PITA even then.
Putting the sides on the chest is tricky, because nothing wants to hold together. I use a couple of long clamps to more or less hold the legs on the bottom:
The bottom acts sort of like the brace on a bow saw--tension on the ends with a post in the middle.
Then it's a matter of nailing:
I use a clamp to try to reduce the splitting changes. It mostly works.
And that was pretty much it for the day:
Here's more of the inside of the chest, showing the dadoes for the till to be added later:
Of course, none of these are done. The benches need to have their feet leveled on the belt sander, using the table saw top as a reference surface. Then more finishing. The chest needs the side overlaps sawed off. I leave them long to reduce splitting, but now they have to be hand-sawed off while avoiding the handles. After that I'll add the top, and see if my plans for the till work out. I've never done one like this, so I'm not sure how well it will go.
Kirk