Now that I had the band cut to width I could start on
cutting the tails. I started by clamping
the band and template to the workbench then using my “drill” I marked where all
the tacks would go. It’s pretty simple,
clamp the drill using locking pliers, insert in tack hole and tap with a hammer
to mark.
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| Marking Tack Locations |
The first time I made the body band I went from marking the
holes to cutting out the tails to drilling the holes on the drill press. There was a problem with this sequence since
the holes are not drilled but the nail makes a hole into the wood by spreading
the wood fibers versus a drill removing material to make a hole. That process worked on all the holes except
for the ones at the very end of the tails.
The wood is so narrow there that my home made drill acted like a wedge
and split each one when I drilled it. I
was not happy but could fix it with some waterproof glue. I had to use waterproof glue since these
pieces are going to be soaked in hot water in preparation for bending. Adjusting the sequence to marking the holes,
drilling them and then cutting the tails worked just fine.
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| Drilling Tack Pilot Holes |
Since the band is only 1/16” thick can cut them using a
utility knife with a sharp blade. Borrowing
a practice used in the kitchen to keep a keen edge I use a sharpening steel in
this case the tool I use to put a hook on my scraper. Honing the blade frequently while making the
cuts really helps keep a good edge.
I had thought about using the template to draw the outline
then follow the line freehand but a better process is to use the
template as a guide for my knife. Here a
shot of me carefully using the template to guide the knife.
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| Starting Cut for Tails |
A light first pass sets the cut in it’s proper place. Several more passes are made each one
gradually cutting deeper until the piece pops free. Some light sanding to clean up the cut edge
and this end is ready.
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| Cut Tails, Template & Waste |
With the tails cut I sanded the faces smooth. Even though I had changed the sandpaper in
the thickness sander to 220 grit for the final pass there was still some sanding grooves that
needed to be removed by hand sanding.
Here is a before and after shot of the band for the lid. For scale just remember the holes in the band
are less than 5 hundredths of an inch across.
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| Before & After Final Sanding |
On the other end I need to add a taper over a distance equal
to the length between the first row of tacks and the end of the tails. This taper provides a smooth transition on
the inside of the box and lid.
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| Setup for Making Taper |
The easiest way to make the taper is on a belt sander or it
would be if I had one, unfortunately I do not.
I tried my disk sander and that turned out awful. From there I then went on to try a variety of
tools including different hand planes and a spokeshave none of which
worked. The piece of cherry I was
working with had the grain was running the wrong direction to plane so no luck
there.
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| Tools That Did Not Work |
I finally ended up using a rasp for the bulk of the material
removal followed up with sandpaper. The
sandpaper is from my random orbital sander which uses a hook and loop (Velcro)
for attachment. I took a piece of MDF
the same size as the sander then applied the self-stick hook half to make a
sanding block. This way I had a nice
flat fairly hard surface to use for sanding.
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| Items Used to Make Taper |
Here is a side shot of the piece marked and clamped in place
ready for me to taper. For this size
box, a number 4 the taper will go from zero at the end to the full 1/16“ over
the 2¾“ length.
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| Edge View of Area to be Tapered |
Process is to start with the rasp to take off most of the
material. As I get fairly close to being
done I will chalk the surface so that I can easily see how far my cut has
progress along the taper length. Keeping
an eye on the taper distance and the end thickness I can make adjustments to my
cutting as needed.
When I get close to being done I switch to the sanding block
and a fairly coarse paper to remove the rasp marks then working through finer
grits ending up with 220 grit to finish the taper.
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| Completed Taper |
The boxes are held together with copper tacks that for added
holding ability are clinched on the backside.
To make this work I needed to put together a simple anvil that will bend
and clinch the tacks as they are driven in.
The solution is to take a length of plywood then bolt a 9” long by 1”
diameter piece of galvanized pipe to it and screw that on a length of plywood
so I can clamp the whole assembly to the workbench.
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| Anvil for Clinching Tacks |
By now you would think I have everything to actually build
the body of the box:
- A form to wrap the body around
- Plugs to keep the body’s shape right
- A drill to bore the holes for the tacks
- Templates for the tails on the end of the pieces
- Copper tacks and the anvil for clinching them
- Cherry 1/16” thick for the body the right length and width with tails cut and holes on one end for the tacks with a taper on the other end.
Well there is one more thing I need and that’s a pan to hold
the boiling water so I can soak the cherry bands so they will be flexible
enough to wrap around the form without splitting. I don’t know about most people but we have a
distinct lack of available pans 4” wide, 30” long and 2” deep for that
purpose. Even if we did I suspect that
my wife would take a dim view of me using a kitchen pan to soak wood. You can buy a copper pan for $140 or a
galvanized steel one for $48 but as I said before I don’t plan on going into
production of these boxes. As such I did
not want to invest in specialized equipment unless absolutely necessary so I
needed to look for another solution.
Next Up – Soaking Box, Bending, Tacking & Fitting Bottom
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