Cherry Detour

My Forstner drill and hand chisel technique was working pretty well for the butterfly key openings, but not so well for making the bottom of the openings flat and a consistent depth. My router plane was too big for this job, so I asked a couple local woodworkers about borrowing theirs, but no one had one small enough so I wound up buying one and am awaiting its delivery at present. 

Meanwhile I reconsidered the end cuts I had carefully made on the slab using a circular saw a few weeks ago. There was more tear out than I wanted - I wanted zero. I thought I could get rid of it by rounding the edges a bit, but some of the tear out was just too much. So I decided to recut the ends, this time using my bandsaw. 

 Since I had already rough cut the butterfly key opening on one end I did not have a lot of material to work with, I decided to take 1/4" off each end.

Although the bandsaw table is small and the slab is large, with a support roller it actually worked very well - no tear out at all!

After the cutting I cleaned up the edges with a range of sandpapers. I know that using a spokeshave or other cutting tool would yield a much better finish, but I use my slab of 1" plate steel as a sanding block and it makes short work of the task, and keeps the edge super even. I'll run the papers up to 400 grit to make it gleam!

This piece of steel is one of my favourite 'tools', its substantial weight and perfect flatness make it super handy for many tasks. I attended a steel scraping class some years ago and this was a little project we did there. I personally scraped this thing flat to within less than 0.001". 

 

 I also took the opportunity to trim some of the pieces on the base to their final length. I was concerned that the base looked a bit small under this large slab. I still need to put tapers on several of the pieces as well as make an arrangement for mounting the slab to the base. 

 

Plenty of work left still!

Not a Cherry on Top!

 As mentioned in my last post I plan to use this slab as my top.

 

Although sold to me as rosewood I am not entirely sure what it really is. In any case I think it'll make a fine top for the cherry base. It does have cracks coming in from each end. These are too long to be entirely cut out, so butterfly keys it is.

Naturally my first instinct was to do a mock up. I used some locust and beech to practice with. I was pleased with my double-clamp method I devised to make up the keys, although the fit was average at best.

Next was to choose what wood to use for the final butterflies. I wanted something a bit darker than the top. It was fun to dig up and look through all these exotic woods. 

I decided on three keys at each end. My fancy double-clamp key cutting method that worked great on the beech did not work here, so cutting these out was a bit more tedious. 

The perilous task of cutting the keys in the slab was next. I first did a test on some of the end that would be cut off anyways. 

I quickly realized that freehand routing was NOT the way to go! Can't see what I am doing. I even ordered some clear plexiglass and made up a new base but that did not really help. Forstner bit and chisel it shall be.

It was too stressful so I spent some time cutting off the ends of the slab and then cleaning up the end grain. Getting that spokeshave sharpened just right, wow what a difference!

 

There was no way to avoid cutting the keys, so I forged ahead. The workmanship of risk.

Along the way I decided it was well past time to replace my Forstner bits that I paid $2 each for. I bought some nice German made ones and they are superb. Chip clearance is key!

Hopefully the next post I will have the keys in the slab.