Router Plane

Monday, April 9, 2018

Rifflers Handles & Case - #4 Top & Bottom Panel Glue-up, Making Dividers & Ends


Having let the parts set I checked them and they were all flat.  The blanks for the top and bottom of the case are a ¼” thick and need to be 9” wide by 10 ¼” long. 


I do not have a 9” wide walnut board and if I did when I cut it to ¼” thick it almost certainly would warp.  To get a blank the will remain flat I will glue up three individual pieces.  Like before I spent some time playing around with the pieces to get the best match of grain and color.  Once done I numbered them so they will go together in the right order.  Here is one set ready to be glued up.  If you take a close look you can see an “UP” and a “DN” one either side of the joint.  Those indicate which way they get run through the table saw.  That is so if there is any variance in the saw blade cutting a perfect 90 degree it would be cancelled out.


I can now start gluing up the panels.  To do so a couple of bar clamps are set vertically, glue is applied to one edge and they are clamped up.  I take particular care to align the boards up with the bars.  That is so when I apply pressure it is centered on the pieces and there is less of a chance that I will end up with them bowed.  The center clamp helps keep the two pieces flush.  I did not have a problem with the ends but the center needed a little “help” to stay aligned.  They are let set overnight to cure then I go through the same process to add the third piece as shown in the photo below.

Once cured I trimmed up the edges then ran it through the thickness sander to flush up the little variances in the joints ending up with blanks for the top and bottom.  I will let these sit for a bit to make sure they stay flat.


Next up is the dividers, right now the they are just a couple of hundredths of an inch over ¼” thick.  Once I have finished shaping them I will use the thickness sander to take them right to ¼”. 

I started by ripping the pieces to finished length and width.  With that done I taped them together so I could cut the center arc in all the pieces at once.  A paper template is applied and they are ready to go.


They are cut out on the bandsaw.  I cut half way in from one end then turn the piece around and cut from the other.  In the top photo I have cut half way and am ready to cut from the other direction.  The block on the right side is to help keep the blanks square with the table.  The bottom photo shows the resulting cutout.


To smooth the cut edge, I use an oscillating drum sander.  As the drum spins it also goes up and down giving a better finished surface.  There are various size drums and grits of sandpaper.  A coarse grit cleans up the rough face and a finer grit completes the process.  Well almost, the finest sleeve I have is 120 grit and that’s not good enough.  Later on, I will do some hand sanding for my final surface.  The top photo is before I start and the bottom shows the completed face.


The next parts are the ends.  I take the glued-up blank from Post #3 run it through the thickness sander until it matches the 1¼” height of the dividers and cut off two parts that will make the ends.  The grain direction is a little different than usual and you see that in the bottom photo.  The white lines are the center of the slots for the dividers.


Cutting the slots is done with a ¼” stack dado.  First, I set the ¼” cut depth using a depth gauge my dad made for me years ago.  A test cut and a little adjustment gave me my dead on ¼” depth.


The process for making the cuts is to work from the center out.  Here you can see where the center cut is done along with one on either side.  I only measure one side then flip the board end for end to make a perfect mirror copy.  That process is repeated for the next two then for the last cut a sacrificial piece is clamped to the fence then it is run up until it just touches the blade and the cut is made.


Now I can take the dividers that are just a little too thick and run them through the thickness sander to get them just right.  Well really, I am taking them down to about 5 thousandths thicker that what I want to end up with.  The last little bit will be removed with 320 grit sandpaper.  If I were to fit them just right then sand they would be too loose.  The slot measures .250 inches, right at ¼” which is what I took the dividers down to.  However, for the dividers to have just a little friction fit I needed take them down to .245 inches thick.  Below is the test fit with the rifflers dropped in place.


Before gluing the dividers in place, I finish sanded the end grain of the end pieces.  I had to do that before gluing them in since once glued in place sanding will be next to impossible.  Also, since it is end grain I need to go to a finer grit, 400 in this case, than I would have to if it were face grain.  To keep an absolute flat face when sanding I clamp a piece of sandpaper to a granite tile. 


Below the bottom piece shows the cut right off the saw and the top one is the finish sanded end. 

Next Up – Base Assembly & Top Part 1

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