Well, the beekeeping season is over - so made a start on my next project!
I started with a lump of ash that's been hanging around for ages. Its slighly bowed, but had one straightish edge - here I am squaring off the two ends. I never used to bother with all the safety stuff, but find it much more comfortable wearing the glasses, dust mask and ear protectors. I always found I get itchy eyes from the dust - and glasses seeem to help.
Next up, ripping it to size. You can clearly see a few splits here.
Next up, I decided on a profile. Somewhat arbitarily, I choose 18mm as the curveture at each end. I then bent a steel rule between these points, and drew a line. Next, every 10mm, I noted the distance.
With the crown guard removed, I took trenching cuts every 10mm. I know, you could just as easily do this with a router. I did it on the tablesaw. Its easy to set up the fence on the sliding table, and take a cut, rotate the wood, and cut the other side so you get a balanced profile.
Chiselling out the main profile. Heebeejeebs my hair is dissappearing.
I subsequently found it was much better doing it this way round...
Voila. A very approximately profiled seat.
Out with the spokeshaves next. You can just see a couple of screws lashed into the workbench - holding it secure.
A few blisters later, its complete - its quite satisfying using a spokeshave. You can still see the splits on the RHS.
I've decided to rout out the splits. Here I am wishing I'd done it before I profiled the curve. I've even tidied the workbench
I'm going to fill those cracks with walnut. Although each crack is full width -I'm just going to worry about the top.
I trimmed up the walnut using a japanese saw, and a LA plane, then glued and clamped in position.
I left this for about 3 hours, removed the clamps, used to spokeshaves to get the walnut smooth to the rest of it, then scraped, then sanded, then got the first coat of oil on. Sadly, those pictures are still on the camera!
Adam
I started with a lump of ash that's been hanging around for ages. Its slighly bowed, but had one straightish edge - here I am squaring off the two ends. I never used to bother with all the safety stuff, but find it much more comfortable wearing the glasses, dust mask and ear protectors. I always found I get itchy eyes from the dust - and glasses seeem to help.
Next up, ripping it to size. You can clearly see a few splits here.
Next up, I decided on a profile. Somewhat arbitarily, I choose 18mm as the curveture at each end. I then bent a steel rule between these points, and drew a line. Next, every 10mm, I noted the distance.
With the crown guard removed, I took trenching cuts every 10mm. I know, you could just as easily do this with a router. I did it on the tablesaw. Its easy to set up the fence on the sliding table, and take a cut, rotate the wood, and cut the other side so you get a balanced profile.
Chiselling out the main profile. Heebeejeebs my hair is dissappearing.
I subsequently found it was much better doing it this way round...
Voila. A very approximately profiled seat.
Out with the spokeshaves next. You can just see a couple of screws lashed into the workbench - holding it secure.
A few blisters later, its complete - its quite satisfying using a spokeshave. You can still see the splits on the RHS.
I've decided to rout out the splits. Here I am wishing I'd done it before I profiled the curve. I've even tidied the workbench
I'm going to fill those cracks with walnut. Although each crack is full width -I'm just going to worry about the top.
I trimmed up the walnut using a japanese saw, and a LA plane, then glued and clamped in position.
I left this for about 3 hours, removed the clamps, used to spokeshaves to get the walnut smooth to the rest of it, then scraped, then sanded, then got the first coat of oil on. Sadly, those pictures are still on the camera!
Adam
