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

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

Rifflers Handles & Case - #3 Plans & Roughing out Blanks

Now that I had the finished rifflers with handles I could use their final dimensions of 1” in diameter and 7 7/8” long to design a case around.  My criteria was to have a case that would protect them from knocking together, allow me to see the cutting profiles and would set on the workbench providing easy access.  After going through several general sketches, I finally settled on one style and started to develop a 3D drawing in SketchUp.  After about half a dozen iterations I ended up with what looked to be a good workable solution.  Next was to pick wood.  I narrowed it down to two selections, walnut and mahogany.  The lighter woods like maple and oak got eliminated because in use they show wear and dirt more than a dark colored wood.  My final decision was to go with walnut mostly because I think it will provide more of a contrast with the cherry handles than the mahogany would.  Rendering the 3D drawing with a walnut case and cherry handles gave me this result, one image open and the other closed.

Going through my walnut boards I found some pieces that I bought years ago because I liked the color and grain.  They did have some condition issues with knots, cracks and as they had thoroughly dried developed some twist and a bit of bow.  Because I live in the desert as wood dries it regularly gets to less than 5% less in moisture content.  I don’t know how much lower because my moisture meter quits registering at 5%. 

Once I had the boards picked I laid out the parts working around the flaws then rough cut to length and width.  When that was done the twist and bow became much more manageable.  To remove the twist I set them on the table saw marked the high points and flattened them using a power plane checking against the saw top for flatness as I went.  With one side flat I ran them through the thickness sander to flatten the other side then flipped them over and cleaned up any plane marks on the first side.  Now it’s time to set them aside for a few days to see if they are stable or not.

After a couple of days, I had one piece that still had a little twist.  Some light work, this time with a hand plane gave me a flat surface to run through the thickness sander.  Once again, I set the piece aside to see if it was stable.

This time everything stayed flat.  Now I could start the glue up for the thick pieces that will make up each end.  Because I do not want any cross-grain pieces the end spacers and a couple other pieces will have the grain running 90 degrees to what you would normally expect.  Take a look at the drawing below and you can see near the bottom is a typical piece where the grain runs the long dimension of that piece.  To keep the grain all running in the same direction throughout the case the end pieces will need to have the grain run as shown – along one of the short dimensions.  Don’t worry if it does not all make sense just yet.  There are more steps before I get them done and by then it should be clear.

Here is the first glue up, there are two pieces carefully matched so the grain flows from one to another.  The setup I use is to put two vertical clamps in my bench vice which holds them in place, the boards are set centered on the bars so the clamping pressure is straight down.  Two hand clamps help make sure the board faces align.  After a test clamping I loosen the clamps, take the boards out, apply glue and clamp.   I then let it set overnight.

I need to go through the same process once more but with only three boards instead of two.  The different number of boards used to make up the glue-ups are because the two finished pieces will be face glued and I wanted the glue joints staggered.  Anyway, after the glue has cured overnight I run both pieces through the thickness sander to end up with two flat, smooth pieces ready for the next step.  Here is where the careful grain matching pays off.  The piece on the left is made from three boards while the one on the right is made from two.   Look close but it’s pretty hard to find the joints.

Next is to cut off 2½” wide pieces to use for spacers and reinforcing.  Here are the cut pieces.

With that done I face glue and clamp the two larger pieces together.  This is what that looks like clamped up and yes there really is a couple of pieces being glued together under all those clamps.

After an overnight cure I took the clamps off trimmed the edges and ran it through the thickness sander.  Here is what it looks like now.  I will let it set for a bit to make sure it stays flat.

While the end piece blank is resting I checked the other flattened pieces and found them all true.  That meant I could resaw them down to close to their final thickness.  The top, bottom and spacers are all ¼” thick and the sides are 5/16” thick.  I start by using my marking gauge to mark a 5/16” wide piece off as show here.  The extra 1/16” gives me room in case the bandsaw blade wanders a little plus a bit to allow for smoothing and flattening if that is needed.

The bandsaw is my tool of choice for ripping boards narrower and I am using my typical setup.  On the left is my pivot point and to the right is a magnetic featherboard that puts pressure on the board helping it keep at 90 degrees to the table and tight to the pivot point.  I don’t use a regular fence as a guide because of blade drift.  That is a blades tendency to not cut parallel to the fence due to a variety of reasons.  Using a pivot point I can adjust the angle the board is being fed into the blade by swinging the uncut part of the board one way or the other to get a straight cut. 

This shows the two resulting pieces.  The cut is pretty good and will not require much work using the thickness sander to flatten.  The thin piece is just a little over 1/16” thick and I will save that for inlay or use as an accent strip on some other project.

Here are what will be the ¼” and 5/16” pieces after I ran them through the thickness sander.  They have flat parallel faces.  Now I will let them set for a bit to make sure they stay that way.

Next Up – Top & Bottom Panel Glue-up, Making Dividers & Ends

Rifflers Handles & Case - #2 Finishing the Handles

With the ferrules done I could start working to mate them to the wood handles.  The first step is to mount one of the roughed-out handle blanks in the scroll chuck centered on the live tail center then turn the bottom half of the handle down fairly close.  With that done I marked the limit of the dado cut where the ferrule will go.

Next, using a parting tool cut the dado deep enough so the ferrule will fit snugly.  The difference between being too tight and too loose is measured in a few thousands of an inch.  I approach the depth very carefully.  You can always cut it a little deeper but if you go too deep you cannot go back.  The other thing is to make sure the cut into the blank is square or very slightly back-cut.  Otherwise, the ferrule will not fit tight up against the cut edge.  The top photo shows the finished cut and the bottom is of the parting tool.

Here you can see how the ferrule fits on the blank.  Each one is for a particular handle just in case there is any variation in the interior diameter of the ferrules.  Note the wood is a little proud of it.  That way once I have the piece epoxied in place I can come back and turn the wood down so there is a perfectly smooth transition between the two. 

Once all the ferrules are fitted I mixed up some two-part black epoxy spread it on, twist the ferrules around to make sure there are no gaps or voids in the epoxy bed then set them aside to cure overnight.

The next day the blanks are back in the lathe to finish the transition between the wood and the copper ferrule.  Here everything is ready for turning.

Using a gentle touch with the lathe tools I turn the wood down until it matched the ferrule.  In addition, I also turned the end flush with the ferrule.  Some finish sanding of the wood plus a little light work with a file rounding over of the sharp edge of the ferrule and the bottom half was pretty much done.

With that done I could work on the top half.  To mount the blanks so I could turn them I needed to use a simple fixture that is just a small cylinder with a hole centered and counter sunk.  This lets me run a screw into the hole drilled in the blank to pull it up tight against the fixture.  Here are all the pieces ready to be screwed together.  There is a reason I did not just mount the blank between centers and that will be obvious pretty soon.

Once the blank is screwed onto the fixture I can clamp the fixture into the scroll chuck and run the live center tail stock up to the piece.

Next, I mark the finished length of the handle and starting working the end down.  Here I am about half done.

Once I get pretty close to the finished shape I pencil mark two lines near the end for a set of grooves.  They are for decoration and to increase the handle’s grip.  Once marked I use an awl to make a shallow reference cut then using the parting tool cut deeper.  Last is to use hold some thin wire in the groove while the lathe is on using the heat generated by friction to actually burn the grooves.  After the grooves are burnt in I lightly sand with 400 grit paper to clean up any roughness generated by the wire when burning.  The pictures below show the progression.

I can now finish turning the end down to where there is only a small bit holding the waste next to the tail-stock on.  A fine-tooth Japanese pull saw cuts the waste off close to the end then I turn the remaining nub off, make the final shape adjustments and do final sanding.  Now you see why I could not mount the handle between centers. Here is first one done with five to go.  Because they are going to be in a “set” I will need to take careful measurements so they are matching.

After turning all of the handles, I finished them with three coats of Danish Oil Finish.  I used this rather than my usual lacquer finish because these will be working tools and I think that over time the handles will get a little beat up.  If that happens I can clean the handles and just give them another coat of oil.  If I used lacquer then re-finishing is a little more involved but still way less than polyurethane.  If they were a presentation set then I would have considered lacquer.  

I gave the oil on the handles about three days to cure then buffed them with a cloth wheel loaded with carnauba wax.

Last is to mount the rifflers into the handles.  The rifflers are manufactured in Italy so naturally they are metric.  The shafts are about 3mm in diameter.  My actual measurement was .121” or just under 1/8”.  When I drilled a 1/8” hole in a test piece the riffler would not go in.  The hole was too small.  I double checked and the bit was 1/8” so it should have fit or at least I should have been able to twist it in but no way.  I checked the hole with a digital caliper and found that even though the bit was 1/8” the hole was about .118”.  The only thing I could think of was there was some spring back from the wood fibers after the hole was drilled.  Going with this idea I ran drill in and out of the hole several times which helped a little but not enough.  Going up 1/64” made the hole too big.  I could have epoxied the rifflers in the handle but wanted to be able to remove them if the situation called for it.  What I needed to do was to ream the hole out or compress the fibers just a smidge.  To do that I took a 16-penny galvanized nail put it in the lathe and filed it down to .122”.  The photos below show the before and after of that process.

To use my custom “reamer” I started the lathe then by hand ran the handle in and out on the nail.  That helped.  I think it burnished the wood fibers but not quite enough.  What did work was to use the heat generated by the friction of the nail spinning in the hole to melt a little wax on the nail then run it in and out.  I don’t know if it was the wax that added a little lubrication or if it held the compressed wood fibers in place but it worked.  Here is the finished product, six rifflers mounted in matching cherry handles.

Next Up – Case Plans & Roughing out Blanks