I started making a tray yesterday after watching a Paul Sellers tutorial. It all looked easy enough and I decided to make one from memory and no power tools.
I glued all of the strips of wood together and left them to dry over night on top of my sash clamps. Now this is where I learnt a big lesson, I clamped the pieces but did not put a weight nor clamped any wood on it to stop any bowing. It looked very flat when I left it to dry so foolishly I thought it was flat, I guess the lessons we learn the best are when we try things out and things go slightly wrong.
Needless to say, even though the tray does look flat it has a slight bow in it. When I lay it down on one side there is no movement at all in it but when I turn it over the tray rocks a little. It looks to be out by about 0.75mm maybe a bit less. I thought about using the stable side face down but the problem then is that when I need to put the straight fences around the tray I will end up with gaps as opposed to it laying flush.
Not having a plane I have been trying to sand it flush and have a modicum of success with it, I lay it down on a flat surface and try to identify the high points, I then sand those high parts down, I think I have it down to less than 0.25mm in places and upto 0.45 in others.
Now here is my problem, the wood is joined in strips from left to right as you look at it, when I put a set square on the right hand side covering all of the strips it show it as flush with no gap until it hits the middle, then from the middle to the edge of the left hand side it shows a gap of between 0.25mm - 0.5mm. Now if I put the set square on the left hand edge going right it show a gap of appx 2mm and goes over the middle without touching it. I have been sanding this tray for a good few hours so maybe the logic part of my brain has switched off but how can I have a gap on both sides?
I hope I have explained this right, if the gap is around 0.45mm an average for the fenceing will I be able to pull it flush with screws and adhesive? or is it vital it is fully flush?
So much for an easy Job :shock:
I glued all of the strips of wood together and left them to dry over night on top of my sash clamps. Now this is where I learnt a big lesson, I clamped the pieces but did not put a weight nor clamped any wood on it to stop any bowing. It looked very flat when I left it to dry so foolishly I thought it was flat, I guess the lessons we learn the best are when we try things out and things go slightly wrong.
Needless to say, even though the tray does look flat it has a slight bow in it. When I lay it down on one side there is no movement at all in it but when I turn it over the tray rocks a little. It looks to be out by about 0.75mm maybe a bit less. I thought about using the stable side face down but the problem then is that when I need to put the straight fences around the tray I will end up with gaps as opposed to it laying flush.
Not having a plane I have been trying to sand it flush and have a modicum of success with it, I lay it down on a flat surface and try to identify the high points, I then sand those high parts down, I think I have it down to less than 0.25mm in places and upto 0.45 in others.
Now here is my problem, the wood is joined in strips from left to right as you look at it, when I put a set square on the right hand side covering all of the strips it show it as flush with no gap until it hits the middle, then from the middle to the edge of the left hand side it shows a gap of between 0.25mm - 0.5mm. Now if I put the set square on the left hand edge going right it show a gap of appx 2mm and goes over the middle without touching it. I have been sanding this tray for a good few hours so maybe the logic part of my brain has switched off but how can I have a gap on both sides?
I hope I have explained this right, if the gap is around 0.45mm an average for the fenceing will I be able to pull it flush with screws and adhesive? or is it vital it is fully flush?
So much for an easy Job :shock:
