Kumiko Sampler - #6 Completing Lattice Infill & Starting on Frame

With the jigs set for making the wings the beveling and gluing in place of them can begin.  After some experimentation I found a good work flow for cutting and installation.  It starts with cutting four wings then doing a test fit.  In the photo below that would be the right-center top space.  There are also four more cut wings at the bottom.  So far each of the test fits has gone well with no additional work necessary.  After the test fit a dab of glue is added in the corners and the four wings are set in place.  I put one finger on one pair of the wings meeting points, my thumb on the other pair and squeeze them together for one minute.  That’s enough time for the glue to grab and hold.  I have to say the cutting and gluing of the wings in place is taking me less time than I had expected.  Also, only cutting four wings at a time then gluing them in gives my fingers a break.

Once the multitude of wings are installed, I am left with only the kingpin group to cut and install.  As the pattern has progressed the pieces have gotten smaller.  Now the blanks for these last pieces are less than ¾” long and once cut to length they have to have a pair of bevels cut on each end.  Here is what the blank looks like set in the jig.  Note the hold down set just to the right and above the blank.   In use the left end sets on the blank holding it in place allowing my fingers to be away from the razor-sharp chisel.

A few passes with the chisel paring off thin shavings brings the edge down flush with the face of the jig.  Looking close at the enlarged view you can see where the bevel does not go all the way to the bottom of the piece.  That’s because when it gets flipped over and the other side beveled the intersection of the two bevels will meet in the center of the piece.

Here with one face done and the blank flipped over the second side is ready to be pared off.  After that the blank is flipped end for end the process is repeated to make the finished kingpin.

Here is a closeup of the kingpin.

Now it’s just a matter of cutting and gluing in all 16 of the kingpins.  When done this is what the glued-up sampler looks like.  It’s still unfinished as not all the pieces are absolutely flat and in the same plane.  Some are a little high and some a little low.

To flatten the sampler 120 grit sandpaper is clamped down to a flat surface and the completed sampler is scrubbed back and forth rotating it to get a flat and even surface.  Once flat a three-step set of sandpapers is clamped down with 220 on the left, 320 in the center and 400 on the right.  The sampler gets the finish face worked through each grit ending with the 400.

Below is the sampler after it has been through all the grits and is finish sanded.  It may be a little hard to see in the photo but in person you can certainly tell the difference prior to flattening and the finished product.

The half sampler had different length tails on the different sides so I decided to cut them flush with the perimeter rails.  The Japanese pull saw is used to make the cut a fraction of an inch long.  The saw was guided and kept square by a piece of plywood that hung over the rail all on top of a piece of Styrofoam that protected my bench from being cut by the saw.

To remove the little bit of stub and bring the tail flush with the rail some 120-grit sandpaper along with a block to keep the sample plumb make quick work of smoothing things out.  Once flush the 120-grit sandpaper was switched out to 220.  I think I may band this sampler or something else but am not sure yet.

What I am planning on is to mount the full sampler in a frame with a piece of plexiglass for protection and to keep the dust out.  This is what I have in mind for the overall design.  Of course, it’s subject to revision whenever I feel like it.  That’s the advantage of being the owner, architect and builder. 😊

However as always, the devil is in the details.  So far, I am looking at two different frame details.  In the drawings below the top one has a space between the sampler and the glass while the bottom one does not.  Of the two I am leaning toward the top one because I think that not having the sampler right up against the glass may work better.

My original thought was to make the frame out of cherry but that was when I was only making a single sampler and now there are four.  While going through my wood stock looking for the right pieces of cherry, I came across a couple pieces of mahogany.   They were from a friend who when his eyesight failed him he quit woodworking and gifted them on to me.  He had made a tall hall clock with the material and it is truly beautiful.  So now one frame will be of cherry (top board) and the other out of mahogany (bottom board).

While the cherry piece was straight and true the mahogany had only rough edges to work with plus a little bend in it.  A trip to the bandsaw gave me a pretty straight albeit rough edge to work from.

A few passes using the long plane cleaned up the edge so I had a good reference surface to work with.  Next was to check the boards for flatness and two of them had a bit of twist.  A little work with the hand plane and running them through the thickness sander got them flat and all to the same thickness.

A trip to the table saw to rip the boards into the blanks is next.  The cherry and one of the pieces of mahogany cut down fine.  However, the other mahogany board had some internal stresses that as I made the cut were released pinching the blade some even with the splitter in place.  Here is as far as I could get in the cut before things went bad.  The splitter is the black curved piece of steel just back of the blade.  Now my options are to try and salvage the board or cut another piece of mahogany to replace this one and start over.  However that's a decision for tomorrow.

Next Up – Making the Frames – Part 1