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| Tail Pattern with Tack Locations |
Next was to glue them to some thin plywood, cut them to proper width and start cutting curves with a fine tooth coping saw. I tried gluing the paper to the plywood precut to the exact width needed and found that it’s pretty easy for the pattern to shift a bit. For me it ended up easier to glue the pattern onto a slightly oversize piece of plywood then cut it to the final width.
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| Coping Saw Used for Cutting Tails & Files Used for Shaping |
The outside arcs are easy to smooth out and take down to the
line, I just used the oscillating drum sander.
However, the interior arcs are not near as easy. They required all sorts of different size and
shape files plus sandpaper to smooth out the cut and bring the edge right down
to the line. Once I was all done I
traced the pattern onto a sheet of paper, flipped the pattern over and traced
the pattern a second time over the first pass.
If everything is symmetrical the tracings will line up if not, then some
work needs to be done. I was lucky and
the pattern only needed a little cleanup to match.
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| Completed Pattern #4 Box |
With the patterns cut out I just needed one more step to
complete them. I had to drill holes
where the copper tacks go. These tacks,
not glue are what hold the body and lid together. They are really quite small, right at 3/16”
long with a head only about 1/16” across.
I am afraid that when it comes time to put them in the finger shown here could be in for some mashing.
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| Copper Tacks Used to Fasten Boxes Together |
Because the tacks are fairly small the pilot hole for them
is only about 3/64”. I don’t have a
drill bit that small and if I did I could not put it in my drill because the
smallest bit the chuck can hold is 1/16”.
I could get that size bit for my Dremel tool but it comes in a set that
duplicates what I already have except for two bits plus I would have to buy a
chuck for the Dremel tool to hold the bit since I do not have one.
Because the material is so thin and the hole
so small I chose to approach the problem from a slightly different
perspective. Since I am not going into
production building these boxes I decided to make a substitute for the bit
starting with a nail that was large enough I could mount it in the chuck I
had. Here is what I ended up with and
the nail I started with.
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| "Drill" & Nail Blank |
It’s a relatively simple process to make the “bit” although
on a small scale. I take the nail in
this case a hardened panel nail cut off the head and put it in a chuck mounted
in the lathe.
With the nail securely mounted I took a fine file and started working the diameter down
from about 1/16” to my goal of .046” measuring with the digital caliper as I
go.
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| Completed "Drill" |
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| Drilling Locating Holes with Drill Press |
Now it’s back to working on the thin wood pieces for the
body and the top. The blanks had set for
a few days and there was no sign of warping, twisting, or cupping so I was good
to proceed. I changed the belt in the
thickness sander from the 120 grit I used to flatten the pieces to 220 grit for
a smoother surface then ran them through removing just enough to get them down
to the final thickness of just a smidge over 1/16”.
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| Measuring Body Blank for Thickness |
The next step is to cut the pieces to width on the table
saw. I use a narrow kerf rip blade for
sawing to reduce the cutting force on the pieces. I was concerned that with them being so thin
if I used a regular width blade I might have a problem with chip out or
worse. Because there is a slight gap
between the bottom of the rip fence and the table saw top the thin blank could
slide under the fence. To get around
this I need to add a secondary fence that fits tight to the table top. My solution is to clamp a four-foot level to
the fence. With that in place I could
safely rip the pieces to the final desired width.
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| Table Saw Setup for Ripping Pieces to Width |
Next Up – Cutting Tails, Tapering, Anvil & the Soaking
Box
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