Router Plane

Monday, April 16, 2018

Rifflers Handles & Case - #5 Base Assembly & Top Part 1


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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