Frank Lloyd Wright Desk Lamp - #2 Starting Baffles & Center Column

The maple I pulled out from my stock measures right at 13/16” thick and about 8¼” wide.  I started on the Baffles by cutting off a couple of 12” pieces.  They are about ¼” wider and a couple of inches longer than needed.

At this point I could have used the bandsaw and ripped each piece into a pair of Baffles about 3/8” thick.  However, I decided not to cut the full 8¼” wide piece in one pass but cut it into two pieces just under 4 1/8” wide.  There are a couple of reasons I did this.  First, the wood is flat sawn meaning that most of growth rings run at 30 degrees or less to the face.  

Cut this way it is more susceptible to warping than quarter sawn or rift sawn.  If there are any internal stresses I want to find about them now.  Second, the wood I am using is hard maple and it’s hard.  About 20% harder than red oak and over 50% harder than cherry.  When cutting the blanks to rough length using my miter saw I could certainly tell the difference.  Anyway, ripping an 8¼” piece in a single pass while doable would put more stress on the bandsaw and would increase the chance of the blade wandering during the cut.

To assure I could keep track of the pieces I marked each face differently then cut them widthwise in half using a thin kerf saw blade ending up with a couple pieces just under 4 1/8” wide.  I used the thin kerf blade to minimize the amount of wood lost so the halves would be as wide as possible.  A smaller cut will also allow a closer grain match when I glue them back together.

With the pieces cut in half I checked to see if they were flat or had any cup.  Sure enough a couple of the pieces had a little cup.  When I rip them in half using the bandsaw the face with the crown goes away from the fence.  If the crown went against the fence then it could rock back and forth during the cut whereas if it is away from the fence then the board is riding on the two high points and won’t rock.

Next is to use my marking gauge set close to half the thickness and run it along each face to make a pair of marks.  I could fuss around setting the gauge to exactly half the width of the board but it’s a lot easier to do it this way.  If it’s a little wider or narrower than half the board’s width or if the boards aren’t the same width it does not matter.  All I have to do is cut between the lines.

Here is my bandsaw all setup and ready to cut.  I have the pivot point clamped to the saw’s fence and set so the blade is right between the cut lines.  The yellow and black thing to the right of the piece to be cut is a magnetic feather board that sticks to the cast iron table and provides pressure to hold the bottom of the board tight to the pivot point.  All I have to do is make sure the top of the board stays snug to the pivot point, the blade stays between the lines during the cut and steadily feed the board through.

Here is a closer photo of the setup showing the blade centered between the lines.

Once I started the cut I could sure tell the wood was hard.  Even though the blade was sharp it did take it’s own sweet time making the cut.  I don’t want to push too hard as that’s a sure-fire recipe to make the blade wander or even break.  Let me tell you when a loaded blade under 15,000+ pounds per square inch of tension snaps it does get your attention and speeds up the heart.  The photo below shows the finished cut. 

With the cut done I marked the ends so when it comes time to edge glue them together I can make sure the pieces match up.  I need to do this because the triangle face marks will go away in the next step.  That’s to run the pieces through the thickness sander to get rid of the roughness from the cut I just made.  Once they are gone I flip the piece over then run it through the machine flattening the second side and making the two faces parallel. 

Here is a close shot of how the pieces come out of the thickness sander using 80 grit paper.

At this point the pieces are just under 3/8” thick.  I will set them on edge and up on a scrap so the air can circulate around all the sides for a few days to see if they move around.

While waiting to see if the baffle parts are stable or if they are going to warp, cup, twist or otherwise move around.   With them set aside I began work on the central column.  The drawing at the right shows what I will be working on.  It will be made up from two halves so I started by roughing out those two pieces. 

They start with a plank just about 1” thick surfaced mostly smooth on the wide faces.  They key word being “mostly” smooth.  Here you can see what I mean there are a lot of hills and valleys that need to be removed before it’s glued together.  That will be done on the thickness sander once the pieces are rough cut to width and length.

The edges on the plank were rough sawn and not at all smooth, straight or square.

To straighten the obvious choice is to use a jointer, but I don’t have one.  Using the equipment I have gives me three choices.  First, is a jig I have that clamps the piece in pace and uses a straight edge with a router to give a straight square edge.  It works great but takes a while to setup.  Second is a power hand planer.  It’s has fair accuracy but is not exactly a precision tool.  Third is my 18” long jointer hand plane.  It’s long enough to give me a good true edge, is easy to use and requires no setup.  I had the board clamped in place and the edge trued up before I could have had the jig/router tool set up.  The photo shows the finished edge along with the hand plane and my 4’ level I use to check for a true edge.

Starting with a good straight edge to use as a guide I cut parallel edges then rip the individual halves to about ¼” oversize.  I usually rough-cut things a bit over just in case there are any internal stresses that get relieved when making the cut.  In this case it’s a good thing I did as after making the cuts both pieces ended up with a curve in them a little less than a sixteenth of an inch.  To straighten I put the concave edge against the table saw fence and used the blade to skim the crown of the curve off.  Flipping the piece end for end then making a second cut cleaned up the other side.  Not a problem as long as I had the width to work with.  Now I set them aside along with the baffles to see if they are done moving.

Next Up – Baffles, Center Column & Boxes