Hmmm
Ok not really...but it sounds so much better than, the shop was brightly lit and comfortably air conditioned.
How about we just get on to the real reason we're here...the continuation of the sewing box builds.
With the stock dimensioned I took a few minute to contemplate overall sizing of each piece and cut the sides of each box to length. Where each piece was cut from a single billet I wasn't able to match the grain in a continuous pattern around the diameter of the piece as I normally do. But where each piece is a book match of one another, it's fairly close. The next challenge was in laying out the dovetails so that they would be as consistent as possible. This proves a tad challenging because one pin has to be sized so that it's the same size as the rest of the pins after it has been sliced in half when the top is cut away from the rest of the box. Did I lose you there?
Anyway, with the tails laid out in such a spacing that I can split the piece into two halves and have each half remain structurally sound, it's time to make some dust. I do have to give a plug to Lie-Nielson here, simply because the tools that they produce are just so sweet. I often have buyers remorse when it comes to purchasing new woodworking tools. Am I getting a quality tool, am I getting the best price, is it going to last, blah blah blah...Well I can honestly say that the Lie Nielson dovetails saw is one of the finest dovetails saws I have ever used. Even with the Bocote in the current project the saw starts easily, tracks straight as an arrow and cuts cleanly and quickly. With it in my hands cutting the dovetails in each piece was a quick and easy process.
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Cutting Tails in Bocote[/caption]
I'm a tails first cutter. If you don't know what that means not to worry, but I toss it out there simply to clear the air and simply say I like to cut the tails of my dovetails first. For those of you that know that I'm talking about and disagree with me...well you can stick a sock in it cause I don't want to hear it. Tails first works for me and that 's all that matters. I also like to cut both tail boards at the same time. I find that this gives me more consistent looking dovetails and speeds up the entire process nicely.
So after an hour or so of cutting, chopping, fine tuning and grumbling I had the two boxes together...well in this case they resembled corrals a little more than boxes but hey...tomato, potato...
With the sides cut I then turned my attention to filling the gaping holes at the top and bottom. A few passes through the thickness sander and a cut or two at the table saw and I had my tops and bottoms cut and ready for installation. The next piece to the puzzle was how to mate each one into its corresponding side. This style of box is still relatively new to me but the process that I've adopted is a simple one using the router table and a lovely 1/8" down cut spiral bit. I use the down cut bit in an effort to keep any tear out to an absolute minimum...
Once I have my rabbet's cut courtesy of the router, it's a fairly easy process of adding top and bottom to side, apply some glue to the dovetails, clamp, cook and serve with a nice Chianti...
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Bocote Box Cooking in the Clamps[/caption]
And Voila...just like that you have a box...a strange and aggravating box that has no lid...give it to your kids for hours of enjoyment as they try to open the impossible.
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Open Says ME!!![/caption]
After cleaning up the dovetails with a block plane and scraper; I like to do this pre-slicing so that each corner remains uniform and matches that much better once the box is cut open. With that done it's a simple matter of running the box through your choice of cutting options. I prefer a thin kerf blade in my table saw: A) it gives me a fairly decent amount of control and say in cutting depth, and B) a sturdy fence and flat work surface. The key to using the table saw is to minimize the inevitable clam shell clamping action after you slice through enough of the piece to allow the nearly free top to clamp lovingly onto your 10K rpm saw blade (not pretty...trust me...) The easiest way to avoid this is to just mill up a couple of spacers that you can slide into the saw kerf to keep the piece from performing that clam shell clamp. I will also only raise the blade enough to just cut through the thickness of the sides, any more than that and you raise the danger/clam clamp level as well as run the risk of leaving blade marks half way up your box side (also not pretty...trust me yet again...) I've also done this top removal process with my trusty bandsaw, but find that the resulting surface required far more cleanup than that of the table saw and the risk/reward of using the table saw far out weighed the bandsaw in my mind. Buuuuut this might change and I might be persuaded to give it another go with a carbide toothed ReSaw king from Laguna tools...oh how sweet it would be...Just the pictures of that blade and the cuts it can make, make me as giddy as a school girl crowing over that beiber kid...How sweet would that be...oh a boy can dream...
Anyway with the top cleanly separated from the box all that's needed is a few quick swipes from a trusty (and sharp) block plane to remove any mill marks left behind. And with that 1 becomes 2 and 2 becomes 4...
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1 Becomes 2 & 2 Becomes 4[/caption]
Up next it's all about the bling bling and the pinky ring!