Frank Lloyd Wright Desk Lamp - #9 Baffle Fitting, The Boxes Continued & Gluing in the Plywood Top

I had planned to continue working on the boxes but am still wrestling with the assembly order.  While I think about that I will finish fitting the baffles.

The start is to size the thickness of the baffles so they fit in the dados cut on three sides of the column.  That’s done with the thickness sander shaving off a little at a time until they fit.  That was the easy part. 

Cutting a notch in the baffle so it fits the three-sided notch in the column is a little more fun.  After some careful measuring, I had the notch centered in the baffle.  To cut I put together a simple jig. The backer will minimize any split out as the blade exits the back side of the baffle and a stop locates the cut.  After the first pass through the saw I flip the piece 180 degrees and made the second cut.  A little work with the coping saw and I had the notch close.  Another set of passes and it was just a tiny bit too small.  Adding a playing card spacer did the trick. 

 

The reason I did not go through the same process of ripping and gluing as I did with the box pieces is because these will fit in a dado and the end cut will be hidden. The top photo shows the baffle almost all the way in and the bottom shows it fully inserted.  You can see how the dado hides the rough edge cut with the coping saw.

Here the three baffles are fitted in place in the central column.

That leaves the boxes to finish up.  I have been procrastinating some because I did not have a good plan on the final assembly sequence.  There are quite a few constraints to take into consideration.  Alignment, time and keeping glue off finished surfaces are the biggest items.  Here are my thoughts so far and the problems I see with each.

1.  My first thought was to glue the spacers on then assemble the boxes and lastly glue them to the spacers.  The problem there is the fit between the spacers and the horned parts that go on them are really snug plus and as I slide the box onto the spacer I will get glue all over the exposed part of the horns or smeared onto the exposed faces of the spacers.  Also, if the spacers are at all out of square or don’t line up just right then the box won’t slide on. 
2. Another plan would be to glue everything together at the same time.  Problem there is getting all the pieces assembled, aligned where they go and clamped in place within the 5-minute working time of the glue. 
3. I could assemble the boxes then add the spacers and finally glue the whole assembly to the central column.  With this method, I am once again concerned about glue getting smeared where I don’t want it and proper alignment. 
4. Splitting the process into four stages.  First, spacer to box horn pieces.  Second, spacer/horn to end.  Third, spacer/horn/end to column.  Fourth, the remaining spacer/horn to column and previously glued on spacer/horn/end.   The time and glue problems are removed but while the alignment problem is reduced it is still there. 

For now, I will work on cutting the miters and all the biscuit slots.   I left the box parts with only the cutting of the miters and biscuit slots yet to be done.  However, before I start that process take a look at the photo below.  It is the one of the box side pieces (labeled B1) and the end section (labeled B2).  The two pieces meet right below the end of the pencil.  Note how the grain flows from one piece to another.  That’s the result of all the careful tracking I did of the pieces as they went through the machining process.  When the box is finished those grain lines will flow right around the corner.

 

To cut all the similar pieces the same size I used a simple jig with a stop.  I will make a couple of cuts, one rough and a final skim cut set by a spacer.  This shows the final skim cut with the cardboard spacer.

Next is to cut the slots for the biscuits.  They are cut using a biscuit cutter.  I have screwed the tool to a piece of plywood and clamped it to my workbench.  Below is the business end of the tool with the small saw blade extended to show what it looks like.  It cuts a semi-circle in the face of the joint for the biscuit goes into.  To use, I clamp the one of the side pieces to the rectangular piece of plywood that is screwed to the reference face set at 45 degrees.  The edge to be cut is against the face with the blade now retracted, the tool turned on and the blade pushed into the piece cutting the slot.

Here is what the pieces look like after using the biscuit cutter along with the biscuit that goes into the cut slot.  Nice thing about these is that once glued in place they are invisible.

A test and clamping fit is done with each of the boxes to make sure the corners on the miters close, there are no gaps and all the pieces go together square.  Fortunately, there were no problems everything fit together.

That finishes up all the major woodworking.  I still have final sanding and softening of the sharp corners to do.  Here are all the non-electrical parts and pieces that go into the lamp.

First part of assembly is to glue the plywood top to the base.  When I cut the rabbit in the base for the plywood to sit down into I made the vertical cut a little deep to create a pocket.  That pocket will act as a catch for any excess glue to keep it from oozing out at the top when glue it in.

When gluing the top on I do not put any glue on the interior structure.  This allows for it to move independently from the plywood top due to expansion and contraction caused by humidity changes.  I just run a small bead of glue around the perimeter of the base, set the top in and clamp it down.  To get even pressure on the joint I use cauls and a bunch of clamps.

Next Up – Dye Testing, Sanding, Completing the Base & Central Column plus Fixture Preparation