Arts & Crafts Entry Bench Update

I mentioned earlier that I screwed up resawing the wood for the lid and had to order more lumber.  While waiting for the new wood to arrive I got started on the floor boards using my new scratch beader and then shiplapped them.  Scratch beading works way better on hardwood than softwood.  You really need a delicate hand with softwoods so that you don't dive into the board.

Scratch Beader at work on the floor boards.

Rabbeting for shiplaps.

So here's one of a dozen or so dry-fits.   

You might be wondering why the front/center panel is missing.

Because I'm the biggest idiot in the world.  That was a very bad day.  I wasn't paying attention and was so focused on making progress that I didn't realize I was cutting the rabbet on the wrong side of the panel.  Every panel is supposed to be flat in the front and rabbeted in the back.  I can't simply flip the board over, because the other side is a non-bookmatched substrate with an off-centered seam.

I had put so much time and attention into choosing those panels.  They all came from the same board to ensure grain and color match, the grain patterns are the craziest I'll likely ever see, and the board is simply irreplaceable.  The cry of anguish when I realized what I had done still echoes in my house.

I attempted to glue pieces of wood back on, but eventually gave up.

I found another board with decent grain and built a replacement.  At least if it doesn't match it will be in the center on not to the side.  I'm hoping that the aniline dye will make everything look like it belongs together and cover up my mistake.

Dry-fit #13,342

The front-center panel is a little thinner than the others.  I had trouble resawing again (of course).  You can only tell from the inside, so who cares?

Boden says it'll be okay.  Moving on...

The Death March Begins

I've charted out every step I need to take to complete this project.  I took 3 days off of work last week and worked on it for at least 8 hours each day and I've still got about 3 weeks to go.  Sigh.

I spent some time getting the tongues to fit into the corresponding grooves.

I resawed, reflattened, and glued up the bookmatched panels.

I made my first quadrilinear legs :-)

In hindsight I should have used oak for the core.  Looks neat though.

Finished up the leg joinery (mortises, through-mortises, stop-grooves)

Make sure you know which leg faces which way. 

See the triangle inside the square.

[No photo]

I made all of the tenons on the table saw with a dado stack and fine tuned them by hand.

The first dry fit!

Arcing the Skirt Rails

And then I completely screwed up the lid.

I resawed an 8.5" wide piece of 4/4 oak, but forgot to edge joint it first.  The boards cupped immediately and were a pain to joint in unison afterward.  The substrate - also 3/8" thick and cupping - wasn't cooperating either and the entire glue-up, using every clamp I own and the heaviest and flattest objects I could find, still wasn't enough to create a flat lid.

Stepping back to clear my head, my brother Nathan helped me figure out where I went wrong.  Why the hell am I glueing four 3/8" planks together at the same time?  A cupping 3/8" thick board can't easily be glued into a panel by itself, and this is just the first part of the problem.  I don't have a stable, flat substrate to press my veneer onto.

And speaking of veneer, I don't need to have a 3/8" thick veneer.  A thinner 1/8" sheet might actually be easier to handle and press down.

So I'm ordering more wood so I can attempt to do a better job of this.  I'm going to glue together a solid 3/4" thick panel and square it up to be the final size of the bench lid.  When this is dry and flat and stable I'm going to edge joint and resaw another 8.5" piece of oak into a much thinner sheet and press this veneer down onto the 3/4" substrate.  Once that is dry I'll trim off the edges and we should be good to go.

It wouldn't be any fun if I didn't make a few mistakes and learn something along the way.