With the spacers fitted and the ends sanded I could start
doing some assembly. First is to glue
the spacer into the ends. This is done
in three steps. First is to glue the
interior dividers into one of the end blocks and clamp them in place. This photo shows that step. I only glue one end in at a time to reduce
the number of glue joints I have to work with at a time. The second step is to glue the other end on and the third is to glue the outside dividers on. I left them until last just to reduce the
number of joints and to reduce the complexity of clamping as these pieces
needed to be clamped in two directions.
Once the glue cured I could use a full sheet of sandpaper
clamped to a piece of granite to flattened the joints by rubbing the divider assembly
back and forth on the sandpaper. The
joints were very close except for one but this allowed me to get everything
completely flat prior to gluing the base on.
I also flattened the top of the assembly and by swapping
out the sandpaper to finer grits I got to my finished surface. In this closeup you can see how careful joint
fitting makes everything go together nice and tight.
Next up is to glue the bottom on the divider
assembly. However, before doing that I
checked the dividers themselves to make sure I had a finish sanded
surface. It is a lot easier to do it now
versus when everything is all glued together.
Since the bottom had set for a few days and was just sanded to 100-grit I
ran it through the thickness sander to make sure it was flat and get a 220-grit
surface. With that done I was ready to
glue the bottom to the divider assembly.
I could have cut the bottom to fit the divider assembly then glue it on
but decided to just get it close before gluing on then trim it to an exact
fit. It would be just my luck that the
bottom would slip a little during the glue-up and that would cause me some
major grief. A flat base, a couple of
cauls and eight clamps hold everything together while the glue cures.
With the glue cured I used the table saw to trim off the
excess base getting close to ends and dividers.
To trim the base right to the ends and dividers I used
the router table with a flush cutting trim bit installed. The bit has a bearing that rides on the
reference surface guiding the cutting edge so the finished cut is almost
perfectly aligned with the end or divider.
The top photo shows the setup ready to cut and the bottom one shows the
finished cut. A little sanding to remove
the cut marks and I am ready to move on.
The next piece that gets attached forms the pocket to
hold the rifflers in place.
This piece is cut from the glued up top panel. The remainder goes to make the pivoting cover
assembly. That cut is not a 90 degree
cut but is at 30 degrees. I set the
angle using a digital angle measuring device, tape the cut to help reduce
splintering, set the fence at the proper distance and make the cut.
Once cut, the smaller cut top piece gets glued to the
already assembled parts. Not to hard I
just have to make sure the bottom edge of the bevel matches up with the end of
the cutout. If you look close you can
see how much oversize the piece was cut.
Once the glue cured I trimmed the top piece to fit with the router as
before.
Next is to sand the beveled edge on the larger top
piece. I did not show the edge sanding
of the smaller top piece but the process is the same. A guide block cut to the same 30-degree angle
as the bevel piece and a sheet of sandpaper is clamped to the granite reference
surface. Pressing the piece to the guide
block I move the piece back and forth until the edge is sanded.
Setting the top piece aside for a bit I took the lid
sides that have been sitting since post 3.
They were still flat and true so I ran them though the thickness sander
loaded with 220 grit paper to smooth out the surface. One end is trimmed for a square cut and then
they are cut to length. First cut is
with a stop block just a little oversize.
Final fitting cuts are made by adding playing cards next to the
stop. I find playing cards to be just
about one-hundredth of an inch thick. In
this case I need two cards.
Cutting the top to width is up next. On each side between the lid and the base
there will be a thin nylon washer about .03” thick. Add a couple hundredths for play and I needed
the top to be .05” wider per side or a total of .1” That translates into 5
playing cards per side taped into place.
In the photo below, you can see the cards along with a couple of maple
spacers to assure that top will be in the same plane as the top piece on the
right side.
After some very careful trimming the lid fits between the
sides and as the photo shows the grain runs interrupted along the top. Last is to cut the top to length.
Gluing the top and side together are next. This is the setup I used, the big orange
clamps are clamped in my bench vice for stability. The fewer parts I have that can move around
on me the better. I do a dry run to make
sure things will go smoothly. While
everything is clamped I tape the side of the lid down to the orange clamp. You can see the green tape on the right
side. Once again, the fewer moving parts
I have when gluing pieces together the better.
I unclamp, add some glue then clamp everything back together. The same process is done for adding the other
side.
Next Up –Top Part 2 & Finishing
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