Website changes

I've been out of woodworking for awhile.  Finally back in the shop.

For a long time my blog was my primary website - great for woodworkers but probably intimidating for all those other folks.  My domain name "www.sittingduckfinefurniture.com" now points to my main website (which can be reached with the "Website" link above) rather than to this blog.  Folks that have bookmarked my blog will now go to my website instead.  Oh well, the trials and tribulations of progress.

The Byrd cutterhead is working very good.  The planer mode of my AD731 Jointer/Planer combo is dialed in and working great - no snipe unless the wood is very soft.  However, I'm having difficulty eliminating snipe with the jointer.  This has to do with the machine and not the cutterhead.  The jointer outfeed table is too low - but attempting to dial in to my desired height is difficult with the machine's outfeed table adjustment.  The outfeed table wants to be slightly too high or too low.  No problem.  I'll get it resolved.

Byrd Cutterhead Upgrade Problems

I've got a 2002 Felder AD731 which I bought 2 years ago.  It is a 12" jointer/planer combo.  Awesome machine.  I decided to swap out the original 4 knive cutterhead with a Byrd cutterhead.  Now, the original cutterhead uses disposable knives.  To be honest, the cut quality of this cutterhead is excellent.  Two problems:  1)  Tear out is still an issue with gnarly woods and 2)  It is LOUD!!!  My small shop is in a residential area and the noise is just too loud.  The Byrd cutterhead will cut the noise in half and handle the gnarly woods better.

Felder now offers their machines with their own spiral cutterhead that they came out with in 2013.  Their cutterheads require noticably less power than the Byrd and the fit and finish simply appears top notch.   However, Felder offers the spiral cutterhead only on their new machines.  So I went with the Byrd.

Well, after dismantling much of my machine to get to the cutterhead and getting ready to install the Byrd I discovered that some of the threads on the Byrd were in bad shape.  To Byrd Corp's credit they are sending me a new cutterhead.  I'm hoping it arrives pretty soon so I don't forget how to put the darn machine back together!  I found that they do not respond to emails very well.  You have to call them to get a response.

I've used the Byrd on another machine in the past so I know that their cutterhead works very well.

Here's my machine naked without the cutterhead block assembly:

Here's the parts laid out on a table.  I did take copious notes and lots of pictures.  Still, I would have preferred to start the re-assembly right away:

Here's the 4-knive cutterhead:

UPDATE:  Two weeks ago they said they would have the new cutterhead sent out in a week.  Now I had to call them for a status and now it is 6 weeks.  OUCH!

FYI - Here is what they sent me:

As you can see - sending this out the door is pretty unexcusable and makes the claim "Made in USA" something to fear rather than appreciate!

Greene & Greene Blacker House Office Chair (Splines/Pegs) - Part XI

The last bit for this chair are the splines and pegs.  I'll be repeating myself here since I've gone over this in other blog entries - but hey, as I've said before, verbosity on the web costs little!

I will install the crest rail spline first as this is a somewhat delicate operation.  Skipping ahead, here is what the spline will look like once installed (somewhat dull as I have not buffed it yet):

The spline comes up the side and then takes a turn to the rear to follow the rearward sweep of the crest rail.  While this can possibly be cut with a router I prefer to use hand tools here.  Below I'm using a flexible jig with 1/4" spacing that conforms to the curve of the side of the chair.  This jig allows me to center the spline along the length of the side which I cannot do with a marking gauge riding one side or the other.

Next I'll use a dremel to hog out most of the waste:

For the top I will use a marking gauge running along the back of the crest rail.  I adjust the marking gauge to meet up with the scribe lines below.  I follow up with the dremel once again, making sure that I stay away from my scribe lines:

Now its time to use my chisel to clean the sides:

The trickiest part is the corner - need to go slow and deliberate here!

Now its ready for splines.  I make the splines using the bandsaw and the Jet 10-20 drum sander.

The tricky part here is where the bottom spline meets the top.  There is a compound angle here and requires some fussing to get a tight fit with my jack plane:

After the glue dries I use a coping saw and my dremel to hog off most of the waste, followed with a spokeshave, file, and sandpaper:

Here is my method for making pegs.  I make the peg stock using a bandsaw and the small drum sander (Jet 10-20).  Then I lay out my sand paper squares as such:

I've got 120 grit on the left followed by 150, 220, 320, 400, and 600.  Below the sandpaper you see a sanding pad - which I use not for sanding but for cushioning under the sandpaper.

I start with the 120 and 150 grits without the sanding pad on a hard surface.  I use the pad under all the other higher grits.  Now, the way I work is that I do not use a pendulum motion.  I angle the stock and slide the tip from left to right only - keeping the angle the same.  I then rotate the stock and make another 2-3 passes.  I make 2 more rotations so that all sides have been sanded.  The goal with the 120 and 150 is to make a pyramid with even edges.  I may have to rotate the stock another round to get the pyramid shape, especially for thicker stock.  I find that by sliding the stock in one direction at a fixed angle I have a much better chance of making even edges all around.  If I try to apply a pendulum motion I find that the edges are all uneven vis-a-vis each other.

Now, if one had a disc sander (which I do not) then one could use that to obtain the initial pyramid shape.

I then go to the 220 grit with the sanding pad underneath.  I use the same hand motion.  However, with the soft sanding pad underneath, the pyramid tip evolves to a nice pillow shape - exactly what I am looking for.  These higher grits go fast as I'm only looking to remove the scratch marks of the previous grit.

Then I buff the edge with my dremel tool and cut the tip off using a fine handsaw - about 3/16" long:

Here I'm using the Lee Valley square hole cutter to make my holes:

Here's the chair with the ebony accents finished:

Greene & Greene Blacker House Office Chair - Part X

With the splats finally finished I can now glue the entire splat assembly to the chair base.  Needless to say, the splat assembly took some time and so it's a good feeling to get to this stage.  I glue the splats together in phases.  I glue the center splat to the base first followed by the two inner small splats and the two outer small splats:

Because the top tenon is housed there is no pressure applied to the spat by simply clamping the crest rail on top - I insert a stick up there (which you can see dangling from the rear) to apply pressure to the splat upon clamping.  After gluing the side splats together along with the center tabs this is what we now have.  I did not need to use clamps for the small splats.  I simply held those splats down with hand pressure for about 5 minutes.

Now its time to shape the crest rail!  I rough cut it down to length and rough cut the back based on the top profile:

Next I rough shape the back bottom profile with a draw knife.  I get close to the profile line.  The draw knife hogs off wood fast - but this bubinga is certainly hard and dulls the draw knife pretty fast.  I hit the sharpening stones and leather strop a couple times.

Next I shape the bottom profile with a table saw, 8-3 carving chisel, and file:

Now I revisit the back and finish the shaping process.  At this time I use a rasp, spokeshave, and file.  The trick is to shape the top edge, bottom edge, and ends.  Then I simply work the middle so it all blends.  No correct answer here:

The original Blacker House arm chair crest rail was made out of 12/4 wood.  This crest rail is made out of 8/4 and so does not have the dramatic rearward sweep and concavity as the original.  Nonetheless, I think it has a nice shape.  This part of the chair will probably be touched the most and so it is important to have a nice tactile feel.

Next I cleanup the ends.  I do not have an oscillating spindle sander.  One is definitely on my wish list.  Until then, I will use my drill press:

The back of the crest rail is finished!

While it is feasable to shape the front of the crest rail after glue-up, given that this wood is so hard I decide to remove as much wood as possible at this time, leaving the ends thick enough for clamps.  Once again, the draw knife hogs off wood fast - with no dust!

Now its time for the last major glue-up!  Upon clamping I had a moment of panic as the crest rail would not clamp tight to the rear posts.  However, the clamping pressure eventually won the day.  Given so many tenons on top (8 tenons total), I knew that clamping would be difficult.  I left the small splat tenons rather loose for this reason.  The center splat tenons were snug, however.  Because I shaped the center of the splat front I no longer had a clamping edge which also made the whole process more precarious.  That is the risk of shaping the front center before glue-up.  With the Blacker House armchair re-production that I built awhile back I did not shape the center front before glue up - so I had a clamping edge which allowed me to get a third clamp in the center.  But the mahogany for that chair is a whole lot softer than this bubinga and so shaping after glue-up was not all that difficult.

Another issue is that there was some side-to-side play with the crest rail vis-a-vis all the tenons.  There was a risk that one of the splat tenons, which are housed, would get stuck on the housing and not insert into the housing - which almost happened for one of the tenons.  I think it was that tenon that was preventing the crest rail to fully clamp tight to the rear posts until it finally slid into the housing.

Now its time to finish shaping the front and sides of the crest rail.  I use a spoke shave, rasp, and file for this.

After shaping, I round the corners and sand up to 220 grit.

One more thing.  I decided to go ahead and glue corner blocks to the two front corners of the seat:

Last step - ebony!  I'll show that process in another post.

Greene & Greene Blacker House Office Chair (Splats) - Part IX

Back to the splats.  Its time for the cool inlay.  Here is what the inlay will look like.

I will cut and inlay the stems first.  The stems are white oak.  I place a piece of white oak under the trace paper along with some carbon paper and use a small wood dowel sharpened at one end to trace the pattern to the oak.  I then use a fret saw to cut the pattern, trying to maintain a 90 degree edge.  I then take a small file to clean as well as bevel the edge.  The bevel will ensure a tight fit later.  The trick is not to file the fingers!

The center splat has a fairly pronounced curve where these stems will go.  I cannot simply bend these stems to the curve without risk of splitting.  Consequently, I will dry bend these stems around a hot pipe nipple.  Normally, bending kiln dried wood is a no-no.  However, I am not bending too much here.  Works like a charm.

I then apply double stick tape to the bottom and position the stem on the splat.  I prefer to use a surgeon scalpel rather than a hobby knife.  The scalpel is a lot stiffer but just as sharp.  Since these stems are so narrow I need to be careful and not push too hard against the stem which may reposition the stem and mess up my scribe line.  Some folks use hobby glue to secure small pieces.  Then they use acetone to clean the area up.  I have not tried this technique.  I'm not a fan of acetone so I've been reluctant.

Once it is traced I route the pattern with a dremel and a carbide downcut spiral bit purchased from www.stewmac.com:

I use the scalpel with an older blade to clean out the tight corners at the bottoms.  Now I glue them in!

Here is what they look like after hand planing.  The edges are nice and tight because I had beveled the sides of the stems.  Nonetheless, there are about 2-3 small gaps here and there.  I use a toothpick and place a small dab of glue in the gap.  I then sand the area with 220 grit sandpaper.  The dust mixes with the glue and fills the gap.  I then follow with a damp cloth to clean the surrounding area.  Works great for small gaps.

Now it's time for the tulips.  I believe the original Blacker House arm chair used purple heart for the tulips. Since bubinga is quite red I decided to use walnut instead for better contrast.  Here I am in the process of cutting one of the tulips:

These rascals are pretty small and difficult to handle.  After a couple attempts I try leaving the tulip connected to the waste wood for a better grip.  This allows me to clean and bevel most of the edge without filing my finger tips!

As with the stems I use double stick tape as a backing and a scalpel knife to trace the pattern followed with the dremel and small carbide downcut spiral bit.  Another thing I forgot to mention.  I wear an optivisor to see what I am doing.  With an optivisor I can literally kiss the line with the bit and see the scribe line flake away.  I've got total control here.

Here I found that a small 2/3 carving chisel works well for cleaning the corners.

Holy tulips, those hands are dry!  The weather has been cold and dry here in southern Oregon.

I will not install the tulips yet.  Because they will remain slightly proud to the surface I will install the silver specs below the stems first - I don't want the proud tulips to interfere with the silver inlay process.  I am using argentium silver wire.  I use a small hammer to flatten the wire a bit.

I then snip them to the desired length using electrical wire cutters.  Then I position the small piece of silver at the desired location.  Then I vigorously tap the small wire.  I do not bounce the hammer as the piece will then go flying.  I hammer down and leave it positioned on the silver.  The goal is to create a small dent in the wood.  I'm using a hammer that has a pillowed surface on one side which greatly reduces the chance of dinging the surrounding wood.

 

Here are all the indents highlighted with a pencil.  Needless to say, it's also important to keep track of which silver piece goes where.

Now I clean the area out with a dremel.  Note the small carbide downcut spiral bit.  This one is pretty small and works great for this task.

The silver still doesn't quite fit.  However, I can get the silver seated pretty well which allows me to use the scalpel to expand the edges as necessary:

Once fitted I place a small dab of gel super glue in the hole and press the silver in.  I may lightly tap with a hammer as well.  Some of the super glue may ooze out.  I find that the gel stuff is much easier to work with as it does not penetrate so deep in the wood - it cleans up easily later with sandpaper.

I use 220 grit sand paper to round over the silver.  I simply sand the entire are with the sandpaper, working the edges and corners of the silver good.  Silver dust will get in the wood.  However, a vacuum and wet toothbrush cleans the surrounding wood fine.  Then I tape around the silver and use 600 grit sandpaper for polishing.  I do not want this sand paper to hit the wood.  It will burnish the wood which will be very noticeable, especially after the finish is applied.  One could go to higher grits for polishing.  However, I think the 600 grit looks pretty good so I call it quits.

Now I finally install the tulips.  I clean the glue off immediately with a damp cloth and toothbrush.  Generally speaking, I'm one to clean glue up immediately.   I plane the tulips down with a hand plane leaving them proud a light 1/32.  I follow with 220 grit sand paper to round over the edges to give them a pillowed surface.  Once again, there were 1-2 small gaps here and there.  I placed a small dab of glue in the gap and sanded the area to fill in the gap, followed with a damp cloth.

Now its time to glue the back together!  I'll do that in the next post.